Postwar America faced a five-million-unit housing deficit after a generation of little building

Evidence

In part, the enthusiastic response to Levitt’s work was due to the peculiar circumstances of the postwar period. The demobilization of 14 million men and women in the armed forces led to a record demand for housing. Everywhere, newly married and recently reunited couples keenly desired the space to start families. Yet, because of the turmoil of the Depression and the war, almost a generation had passed with little homebuilding. According to government estimates, the nation needed 5 million new homes and apartments to satisfy the demand. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 80

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Homebuilding before 1920 was a craft industry with homeownership stuck below half the population — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 85