Monday, July 14, 2008

The history of American mortgage lending in pretty colors

From Time magazine's Curious Capitalist blog:
Who dominates the U.S. mortgage market? Well, depends when you're asking. I spent some time today playing with the Federal Reserve's Flow of Funds data on home mortgage lending. Here's what I found. First, the long-term picture:

mortgage_longview.gif
As you can see, thrifts (savings & loan companies and savings banks) were the biggest mortgage lenders until the early 1980s...MORE