ABSTRACT
During the Great Depression and the years of World War II, the increase in the federal government's role in financial institution regulation and in the housing market increased dramatically. Review of data on commercial banks, savings banks, and B&Ls makes it abundantly clear that the financial institutions had money during the Great Depression, but did not lend it. Saving account deposits rose steadily. Clearly there was a demand for housing in California during the Depression from the rising population. In the 1939 report, the Superintendent of Banks expressed concern about the large amounts in the Other Real Estate Owned (OREO) accounts held by commercial banks. California was the most important manufacturing state in the West. Its production of petroleum products, leisure clothes, auto assembly and small machinery made it eighth in the national ranking of manufacturing states on the eve of the war.
