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The New Deal and the Origins of the Modern American Real Estate Loan Contract

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  • Jonathan Rose
  • Kenneth A. Snowden

Abstract

The introduction of the direct reduction (fully-amortized) loan contract to the U.S. residential mortgage market is an important instance of financial innovation. We describe the adoption of this contract within the building and loan (B&L) industry beginning in the 1880s and culminating in the 1930s. A long chain of complementary innovations at B&Ls gradually reduced the costs of adoption, leading to moderate use by the 1920s. The poor performance of traditional contracts during the crisis of the 1930s then radically altered the adoption calculus. At this point a new system of federal savings and loan charters incorporated many of the innovations that had been adopted within the small segment of the B&L industry that had introduced direct reduction lending by the 1920s. The B&L transition in mortgage contracts occurred primarily in the conventional loan market because B&Ls, unlike other lenders, generally avoided the use of the new FHA insurance program.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Rose & Kenneth A. Snowden, 2012. "The New Deal and the Origins of the Modern American Real Estate Loan Contract," NBER Working Papers 18388, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18388
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    Cited by:

    1. Fleitas, Sebastian & Fishback, Price & Snowden, Kenneth, 2018. "Economic crisis and the demise of a popular contractual form: Building & Loans in the 1930s," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 28-44.
    2. William J. Collins & Gregory T. Niemesh, 2024. "Income Gains and the Geography of the US Home Ownership Boom, 1940 to 1960," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic History of American Inequality: New Evidence and Perspectives, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Fishback, Price & Fleitas, Sebastian & Rose, Jonathan & Snowden, Ken, 2020. "Collateral Damage: The Impact of Foreclosures on New Home Mortgage Lending in the 1930s," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(3), pages 853-885, September.
    4. Sebastián Fleitas & Price Fishback & Kenneth Snowden, 2015. "Forbearance by Contract: How Building and Loans Mitigated the Mortgage Crisis of the 1930s," NBER Working Papers 21786, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Olsen, Edgar O. & Zabel, Jeffrey E., 2015. "US Housing Policy," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 887-986, Elsevier.
    6. Jonathan D. Rose, 2018. "Contract Choice in the Interwar US Residential Mortgage Market," Working Paper Series WP-2018-13, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    7. Fleitas, Sebastian & Fishback, Price & Snowden, Kenneth, 2016. "Economic Crisis and the Demise of a Popular Contractual Form: Building and Loan Mortgage Contracts in the 1930s," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 275, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    8. Sebastian Fleitas & Matthew Jaremski & Steven Sprick Schuster, 2023. "The U.S. Postal Savings System and the collapse of building and loan associations during the Great Depression," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(4), pages 1196-1215, April.
    9. Todd Messer, 2022. "Financial Failure and Depositor Quality: Evidence from Building and Loan Associations in California," International Finance Discussion Papers 1354, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    10. Rose, Jonathan, 2021. "Short-term residential mortgage contracts in American economic history," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • N21 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • N22 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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