ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the mortgage financing necessary to support both an adequate volume of construction and the purchase and sale of the large stock of existing housing. It discusses Housing and Urban Development (HUD) tools for supporting housing markets through support of private mortgage lending as well as the significant federal aids to housing financing that operate outside of HUD. The chapter examines the sharply reduced influence of HUD's Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the reasons for its great decline, and whether FHA is any longer needed. FHA was created in 1934 "to encourage improvement in housing standards and conditions" and to stimulate the national economy by providing jobs for workers in the home construction and related industries. Ernest Fisher developed FHA's system of analyzing local housing markets as well as its highly regarded system of operating and actuarial statistics. William Flanders, Miles Colean, and Frederick M. Babcock selected and deployed FHA's original staff, including its far-flung field offices.
