Morgan Housel

The Great Depression preceded that.

They wanted stability.

Massive housing shortage.

unbelievable housing shortages, more than we have right now.

And if you go to like the late 1940s, that was a top issue on everybody's minds.

There's no homes.

I can't even rent a house.

I came home.

I fought for my country and served in Europe and fought in the war.

And I came home and I'm living in my mom's basement.

Right.

And the indignity of that, huge issue.

And we solved the issue very quickly.

So late 1940s to early 1950s, we built millions and millions of homes.

That was by and large what it was.

And so, for example-

It can get more complicated than that, but I'll give you the well-known example.

In the late 1940s, the Levitt brothers were home builders and they saw this unprecedented demand from GIs coming home.

And they said, this is the opportunity.

We can make a fortune by going out and buying a bunch of abandoned farmland in Pennsylvania and New York and building tens of thousands of small cheap homes.