zlacker

It was because everyone was poor and so weren't capable of bidding up the prices of homes nor did they have expectations of living on their own.

Also, 25% of homes in 1950 didn't have indoor toilets. It was very much not modern quality housing.

Note, more households in the US own their home now than they did in 1984. (I don't have numbers on this one back to the 50s.)

Fear about this is possibly suppressed memories of the 2008 recession, which was really bad!