Housing and Home Ownership

Report Outline
President's Plan for Federal Home Loan System
Record of Residential Construction, 1921–1931
Trends in Home Ownership Since 1890
The Financing of Home Construction
Government Activity in Housing and Home Ownership
Special Focus

President's Plan for Federal Home Loan System

President Hoover announced, November 13, 1931, a plan for establishment of a system of home loan discount banks to release frozen real estate assets and promote a revival of home building. The proposal resulted from a series of conferences at the White House participated in by the President, Secretary of Commerce Lament, and a group of real estate men, builders, and bankers, including members of the committee on finance of the President's Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership. It will be presented to Congress at the opening of its next session in December. The plan is modeled in part upon the Federal Reserve System and in part upon the Federal Farm Loan System. Thirty-two telegrams endorsing it were made public at the White House on November 14.

The main points of the plan the President will present for congressional approval were outlined as follows:

1. Establishment of 12 home loan discount banks, one in each federal reserve district, under the direction of a “Federal Home Loan Board,” each bank to have an initial capital of $5,000,000 to $30,000,000.