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I mentioned cookie cutter people in a previous post but I should point out that Portland in some areas is becoming a bit of a cookie cutter looking city as well. New apartment buildings from fifty units on up are being built in neighborhoods that are at present anything but cookie cutter appearing but these buildings will change that. They are plain, ugly and a good example of urban bland.
In my older neighborhood, one beautiful old 105 year old house was destroyed to make way for one of these newer structures, one was saved and moved, a green space with some foliage was destroyed and a nice corner space was sacrificed to crowd in one of these new 77 unit apartment buildings. Another just like it is also being built several blocks down the street. It will contain 52 units. An old abandoned fast food restaurant stood there so nothing was lost.
Actually, I don't mind so much if cookie cutter is asthetically pleasing as some housing can be. But when buildings are built without a thought to their appearance or they stick out like a sore thumb against their surroundings, cookie cutter is not a compliment.
These so-called "cookie cutter" houses of the late 40s and into the 50s, also called "crackerboxes", enabled home ownership to rise substantially in the US, from 43.6% in 1940 to 61.9% in 1960. That is an increase of nearly 50%. The rate did not go above 50% until 1950.
I thought we were discussing what IS cookie cutter, not whether they were desirable.
Its clear to me that not everyone in the 1950s would have been able to afford a custom SFH, even with FHA and VA financing. Ergo, to have widespread home ownership, with detached SFHs, meant places like Levittown.
I'm not clear that they couldnt have managed home ownership in some other form - attached houses (cookie cutter in some sense, see above) or condos and co-ops.
These so-called "cookie cutter" houses of the late 40s and into the 50s, also called "crackerboxes", enabled home ownership to rise substantially in the US, from 43.6% in 1940 to 61.9% in 1960. That is an increase of nearly 50%. The rate did not go above 50% until 1950.
From what I see the row houses in nay cities are cokie cutter designs. They have less design differences tha allow in mnay modrean cookie cutter homes now days.they basically like them are planned. Most i see are based on fewer differnce tha modern CC homes.
Seems like high homeownership rates are possible regardless of how much building low density detached homes occurs.
I don't even have to read the article (though I will) to answer the title question. No. The GI Bill was mainly responsible. Prior to the post-war period, mortgages were much harder to obtain. http://www.stlouisfed.org/publicatio...ticles/?id=797 http://www.michaelcarliner.com/HPD98...shipPolicy.pdf
**Thirty-year mortgages
did not come into widespread use until after World War II. http://www.gibill.va.gov/benefits/hi...ine/index.html
**Before the war, college and homeownership were, for the most part, unreachable dreams for the average American. . . .Millions also took advantage of the GI Bill's home loan guaranty. From 1944 to 1952, VA backed nearly 2.4 million home loans for World War II veterans.
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 02-22-2013 at 03:47 PM..
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