The Housing Policy Of The United States Federal Goverment And The Sprawl Of The Suburb (1930-1980)

In the late eighteenth century and the early twentieth century, with the development of the industrial revolution and industrialization, the urbanization is also development. Entering the twentieth century, the main pattern of the America’s cities development is metropolitan area. In 1920, the urban population of the American is the half of the total population, urbanization has completed. In 1970, suburban population is more than urban population in the census of the federal government. The United States has realized the suburbanization. There are many factors of the suburban sprawl. The innovation of the technology, the evolution of the economic structure, the construction of highway, the housing policy of the federal government and so on have emerged, which lead to the suburban sprawl with a explosive trend. After the economic crisis in the 1930s, the housing policy of the federal government promoted the sprawl of the suburbs.This paper is divided into five parts. This first part mainly introduces the suburbs sprawl of the metropolitan area in modern times. The process of suburban sprawl can be divided into two parts:the one is modern suburbanization, the other one is contemporary suburbanization. The urban development is the first in modern suburbanization, suburban development is slow. But in contemporary suburbanization, suburban development is very rapid. The suburbs became the main part of American life in 1970. Meanwhile, great changes have taken place in the spatial structure of the metropolitan. There are mainly three aspects of the changes. The first is the function of the Center Business District (CBD) reinforcement. The second is the formation of multi-center pattern. The third is the sprawl of suburb has a low density characteristic.The second part to the fifth part are the core of this paper,which given a detail introduction to the housing policy of the federal government. The housing market is free until the 1930s. After the 1930s economic crisis, the federal government made a series of housing policy which saved the housing market. The federal government made the mortgage loan policy leading to suburban sprawl. Congress passed The National Housing Act in 1943. Meanwhile the Federal Housing Administration was established. In 1944 the Veterans Administration was established. Then three secondary mortgage lenders were established. Their purposes is to serve the American housing market. For the homeowners and investors, federal government reduce their taxes. Therefore, more and more Americans have migrated to suburbs. Federal government established Home Owners’ Loan Corporation which made the suburban sprawl faster. Meanwhile, Home Owners’ Loan Corporation established Redlining. Redlining divided into four parts of the community, with the A,B,C,D and green, blue, yellow and red marked. Red area is the most dangerous place, which can’t get mortgage. These places even get mortgage loans, that the conditions are more complicated. For instance, bigger down payment, shorter loan years and higher interest rates. Suburbs is a new and homogeneous community. So suburbs are easy to get the federal government’s guarantee. Therefore, the Redlining promoted the suburban sprawl. Public housing project is the largest and the oldest residential projects. Public housing is not only meet the needs of the rental housing, but also play an important role in create jobs and eliminate poverty. But actually it appeared many problems. Such as poverty concentration, high crime rate, housing repair difficult and so on have emerged. The center city slowly decline and the suburb gradually prosperity.