The Depression exposed the weakness to this system as the lack of available credit effectively eliminated the value of land by reducing the capital that could be used to purchase it. The solution to this quandary was to remove many of the physical attributes of land from the way in which its purchase was funded. Land as a part of the process of production, through either the rent it produces in residential use or the productive value of the work done on the property, represents a barrier to the efficient circulation of capital (Harvey, 1982). Investing capital in property effectively eliminates it from circulation. Worse, it risks devaluing or destroying the capital should the use value of the property be degraded (Harvey, 1982). The goal of the capitalist system is to minimize the time that capital is stagnant and return it to circulation as quickly as possible, realizing a surplus value and then returning to money form. This desire is contradictory to the investment of capital in property for a significant period.
The Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) were created and begat a secondary market to raise capital. The solution created was to eliminate the investment in property at all. Securities, also referred to as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), debt instruments, or bonds, are created from the accumulated debt of many different properties. Investors buy interest in the debt represented by these securities, relegating the actual property to the role of collateral. While it still retains its original use value the
8
investment in that value is reserved for the mortgagor (the borrower), alone, the global investor is solely interested in the debt obligation of the security. Borrowers who met requirements of credit worthiness and income could again obtain credit in this less risky investment environment. Quantitative aspects of housing that qualified for a mortgage were standardized, resulting in uniform building practices and materials and further enhancing the need for qualitative improvements. This process came to full fruition with the end of the World War II, when millions of qualified borrowers returned home and sought new housing. An interesting future line of research would be on how post-War mortgage finance quickly destroyed and created a new landscape of neighborhoods in the United States.