The housing crisis in 1933, and today

This was situation in 1933

Back then, about half of all mortgage debt was in default. Unemployment reached 25%, thousands of banks and savings and loans had failed and annual mortgage lending had fallen by some 80%. New residential construction had dropped by 80% as well.

The prelude to the crisis might sound familiar. It was a period of grand economic growth and overconfident lending and borrowing. The 1920s featured interest-only loans, balloon payments, an assumption of ever-rising prices and the firm belief in the easy availability of a string of refinancings.

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