05-02-2024, 07:02 AM
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l8r
Industry Role:
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 13,667
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JesseQuinn
props for mentioning that the VA loan programs excluded many. a fundamental economic shift in the transfer of intergenerational wealth down the road and so many left out. love everything you write
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Hey Jesse,
The VA program did not exclude. It was the bankers and the developers that excluded. For example, in the town I grew up in you could not buy a house unless you were white Christians. That was the rules Levitt set in 1949 or 1950 for buyers of the homes. In reality, by 1960 there were Protestants, Catholics and Jews living in Levittown, mainly because you can't tell a Jew from a Christian by just looking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown,_New_York
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Discriminatory practices
As well as a symbol of the American Dream, Levittown would also become a symbol of racial segregation in the United States, due to Clause 25 of the standard lease agreement signed by the first residents of Levittown, who had an option to buy their homes. This "restrictive covenant" stated in capital letters and bold type that the house could not "be used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race."[13]
Such discriminatory housing standards were consistent with government policies of the time.[14] The Federal Housing Administration allowed developers to justify segregation within public housing. The FHA offered mortgages only to non-mixed developments, which discouraged developers from creating racially integrated housing.[15] Before the sale of Levittown homes began, the sales agents were aware that no applications from black families would be accepted. As a result, American veterans who wished to purchase a home in Levittown were unable to do so if they were black.[16][13]
William Levitt attempted to justify their decision to only sell homes to white families by saying that it was in the best interest for business.[16] He claimed their actions were not discriminatory but intended to maintain the value of their properties. The company explained that it was not possible to reduce racial segregation while they were attempting to reduce the housing shortage. Levitt said "As a Jew, I have no room in my heart for racial prejudice. But the plain fact is that most whites prefer not to live in mixed communities. This attitude may be wrong morally, and someday it may change. I hope it will."[17] The Levitts explained that they would open up applications to blacks after they had sold as many homes to white people as possible.[16] They believed that potential white buyers would not want to buy a house in Levittown if they were aware they would have black neighbors.
Though the Levitts were Jewish, they did not wish to sell homes to Jewish families either; despite this, by 1960, although it was still a completely "white" suburb,[18] the population of Levittown was roughly a third Jewish, with the remainder about a third Catholic, and a third Protestant.[19]
An opposition group was formed, the Committee to End Discrimination in Levittown, to protest the restricted sale of Levittown homes, and to push for an integrated community. In 1948 the United States Supreme Court, in Shelley v. Kraemer, declared that property deeds stipulating racial segregation were "unenforceable as law and contrary to public policy".[20][13] Only well after the 1954 racial integration decisions, including Brown v. Board of Education, was Levittown racially integrated, and even as late as the 1990 census, only a tiny fraction of the community was non-white. [21][13] Starting primarily in the 2010s, Levittown's demographics have been shifting as it has been attracting middle-class South Asian and Hispanic residents to the community.
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The houses he built originally sold for around $8,000. But with the GI bill and such you could get into one for about $400 (5%).
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His mass production of thousands of houses at virtually the same time allowed Levitt to sell them, with kitchens fully stocked with modern appliances, and a television in the living room, for as little as $8,000 each (equal to $109,162 today), which, with the G.I. Bill and federal housing subsidies, reduced the up-front cost of a house to many buyers to around $400 (equal to $5,458 today).[10]
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