Repairing a Mortgage Crisis: HOLC Lending and its Impact on Local Housing Markets

Charles Courtemanche and Kenneth Snowden ()

No 16245, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The Home Owners' Loan Corporation purchased more than a million delinquent mortgages from private lenders between 1933 and 1936 and refinanced the loans for the borrowers. Its primary goal was to break the cycle of foreclosure, forced property sales and decreases in home values that was affecting local housing markets throughout the nation. We find that HOLC loans were targeted at local (county-level) housing markets that had experienced severe distress and that the intervention increased 1940 median home values and homeownership rates, but not new home building.

JEL-codes: E44 G01 G18 G21 G22 G28 N22 N62 N92 R31 R51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-07
Note: DAE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published as Courtemanche, Charles & Snowden, Kenneth, 2011. "Repairing a Mortgage Crisis: HOLC Lending and Its Impact on Local Housing Markets," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(02), pages 307-337, June.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Repairing a Mortgage Crisis: HOLC Lending and Its Impact on Local Housing Markets (2011)
Working Paper: Repairing a Mortgage Crisis: HOLC Lending and its Impact on Local Housing Markets (2010)
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