Development of Federal Homeownership “Policy.” Housing Policy Debate 9(2): 299–321

Federal programs that have been established with homeownership as an explicit objective have been rare, limited, and often short-lived. Programs that promote or facilitate homeownership were generally created to serve other purposes, such as macroeconomic stimulus. Such programs have often been retained or expanded be-cause of their effects on homeowners and homeownership, however, with their ini-tial purpose forgotten or ignored. The federal government’s active involvement in housing generally dates from the 1930s. With regard to homeownership, federal involvement has included tax provi-sions, credit market participation and regulation, and (rarely) direct subsidies. Federal programs such as the Federal Housing Administration have had profound impacts on owner-occupied housing and housing finance, but many of the innova-tions commonly attributed to government programs were in fact present in the past and developed by the private sector