History of the American Dream

The construction of residential areas in the United States begins with the development of land and the preparation of a site for construction. The land is divided into individual lots, streets are being prepared, sewage and rain drains are being built, electric networks, gas and telephone lines are being supplied, and only then does the construction of houses begin. Such plots are prepared and built up by one company, and I already wrote about such construction in detail, but it was not always so.

Today I will tell the story of the "American Dream" of the period 1900s - 1940s and consider the possibilities of such construction for the population from a financial point of view.

Until the twentieth century, most of the sleeping areas were relatively small, and new areas grew around existing ones by lengthening the already constructed streets. There were no government requirements for developers, since companies of developers in fact did not exist. At that time, only the buildings of the central parts of the city were strictly regulated to preserve beauty.

Companies sold land for individual construction, and after buying a plot of land, the owner already independently ordered a house from any construction company. After some time, companies selling land, it became clear that it would be much more profitable to sell land in areas with ready-made infrastructure instead of individual plots. So the term "district construction" was born.

One of the first areas of this type was built in 1927 by two independent companies under the leadership of two architects - E. Boston, near the city of Baltimore, and D. Nicholas, in the suburbs of Kansas City.

The districts consisted of about 6,000 houses, with a population of 35,000 people. Since the built-up area in both cases was very large, the developers had to solve a number of new issues on the construction of the full infrastructure of the area in the form of schools, shops, and the nearest office buildings. In this case, just technical and communication lines were not enough, and then the architects decided to introduce the first standards for the development of residential areas.

Thus, several associations of architects and builders were born at once, which today regulate most aspects of the construction of sleeping areas, namely the National Association of Urban Planning and the American Institute of Urban Construction. In addition to the regulation and laws regarding construction standards, associations helped new companies to create design and lay-out areas, which greatly facilitated the life of potential buyers, as companies began to provide a master plan for development.

But with the advent of economic depression, the issue of building sleeping areas was temporarily frozen: most people fell into a cash-strapped situation. Issues of further improvement of the areas had to be temporarily postponed until better times. As early as 1929, President G. Hoover began convening hearings on the housing issue at the very moment when the depression was just beginning, and construction companies began hastily freezing construction projects due to the insolvency of the population. But before the arrival of F. Roosevelt in the administration, cardinal laws were not adopted.

At that time, the owners bought the houses immediately, so only rich and well-off people could afford to live in sleeping areas, even the middle class could not afford such a life. In the period from 1910 to the mid-1920s, banks gave private mortgages to individuals with good solvency for a period of 2 to 5 years, but still these loans remained “expensive” for the middle class. Although it is worth noting that the first massive attempts at lending to the population were made already in 1932 after the adoption by the government of the law on loans for private real estate.

By 1933, due to the insolvency of the house, received on loans in 1932, the owners leave at a speed of about 1,000 per day. It is not surprising that President F. Roosevelt, when he came to the White House, saw one of the components of the economic recovery in providing the population with good housing. The presidential administration said: if people are happy at home, then they will be happy at work.

Therefore, on June 27, 1934, the government signed by the president adopted one of the most important laws for the construction of residential areas - the Federal Act on the Crediting of the Population for the Purchase of Private Real Estate.

For the first time in the history of the country, homeowners were given the opportunity to protect their mortgage from rising or falling prices by 80%, and the loan itself was issued by the government for a period of 15 years at 5% per annum.

The program itself lasted 3 years, but it was during these three years that the middle class population first gets the opportunity to buy a house in the suburbs, there is a surge in the construction of residential areas. It was during this period that the term "American Dream" was born.

By the third year of the program’s existence, the interest rate was reduced to 3%, and the loan term was increased to 20-25 years, and those who received a loan at a higher rate could go through refinancing.

The next stage of intensification of construction falls on the period of the Second World War, when its participants gradually returned, to whom the state provided not only assistance in the form of various subsidies, but also provided good work. War veterans have always been hired first. By the way, this principle remains valid today. The construction of houses for military personnel was even more accelerated after the adoption of the law on assistance to veterans in 1944, or the so-called law of the "rights of military personnel", which guaranteed a mortgage with a low percentage of the state for buying real estate after the expiration of the army contract and after the dismissal of military personnel.

The first mass areas with full infrastructure began to develop rapidly in California, where from 1941 to 1944, 2,300 houses were built for war veterans.

At this time, companies begin to build areas in the already familiar layout today: with park areas, office buildings, schools, shops, kindergartens.

Sleeping areas already cease to be areas, and become independent municipal units with their names, postal codes, phone codes. Most of the population in such areas works within the city, but part of the population gets work directly within such areas. Small business begins to spread from the city center to their outskirts, which further enhances the development of residential areas.

At the same time, requirements for the use of land begin to tighten; the first such laws were adopted back in 1909. The purpose of adopting laws was primarily to keep the sleeping areas clean and tidy. For example, it was forbidden to place factories within a radius of 20 km from the sleeping areas. The buffer zone was office buildings or storage facilities, as well as chain stores.

With the adoption of laws on the regulation of land use, builders returned to the issue of reviewing the design of sleeping areas and creating coziness and beauty inside them, not only in the form of park areas, but also in the form of improved house design and street layout, the creation of artificial ponds and recreation areas.