HOME OWNERSHIP Congress’s solution: The Federal Housing Administration. Designed to create construction jobs by insuring 100% of the loans made for housing, the FHA simultaneously created lower risks for lenders, and encouraged homebuyers with minimal downpayments and longer amortization periods. As it accomplished this, the FHA placed a unique signature on each decade: the 1940s witnessed programs to finance military housing and make home purchases possible for returning veterans; in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s the FHA stimulated production of privately owned apartments for elderly, handicapped and lower income Americans; during the ‘70s it buoyed up cash-strapped properties floundering under the weight of soaring inflation and energy costs; during the recession of the ‘80s the the FHA’s ability to stabilize falling home prices made it possible for buyers to continue to purchase homes. This particular area does not see a large number of sales through the FHA nonetheless, it continues to play a solid role in home ownership today. AMERICAN HERITAGE REALTY
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The American heritage of home ownership hit the ground running. Things were pretty bleak back in 1934
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the housing industry was non-existent, thousands of construction workers were without jobs, mortgage terms for homebuyers were virtually insurmountable, and less than half of American households owned their own homes. The country needed to pull itself up by the bootstraps. 
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