Endnotes for White Family in Markham

20 miles south Dave Bartlett, “Markham, IL,” The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago (Chicago Historical Society, 2005), http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/789.html

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$11,704 Dave Bartlett, “Markham, IL,” The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago (Chicago Historical Society, 2005), http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/789.html

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split-level and brick ranch Time, “A Lift in Living,” September 21, 1959, 28.

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Comparable communities listed in Time suggest that $13,000 is a reasonable estimate of the price of a house in Markham in 1960. "Blooming on the outskirts of dozens of cities are hundreds of new communities such as Park Terrace: Crestwood Forest (150 homes, $12,000-$60,000) near Atlanta; Lakeview Gardens (614 homes, $9,000-$19,000) near Memphis; Pontchartrain Park (725 homes, $14,300-$25,000) near New Orleans; Dunbar Estates' Westbury Houses (200 homes, $14,000-$20,000) in Long Island; University Park (400 homes, $11,000-$15,000) near Charlotte, N.C.; integrated (53% white, 47% Negro) Concord Park (139 homes, $12,700-$14,350) near Philadelphia." Time, "A Lift in Living," September 21, 1959, 28.

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Interstate 57 Dave Bartlett, “Markham, IL,” The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago (Chicago Historical Society, 2005), http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/789.html

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map of Markham http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/789.html

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Comparable communities listed in Time suggest that $13,000 is a reasonable estimate of the price of a house in Markham in 1960. "Blooming on the outskirts of dozens of cities are hundreds of new communities such as Park Terrace: Crestwood Forest (150 homes, $12,000-$60,000) near Atlanta; Lakeview Gardens (614 homes, $9,000-$19,000) near Memphis; Pontchartrain Park (725 homes, $14,300-$25,000) near New Orleans; Dunbar Estates' Westbury Houses (200 homes, $14,000-$20,000) in Long Island; University Park (400 homes, $11,000-$15,000) near Charlotte, N.C.; integrated (53% white, 47% Negro) Concord Park (139 homes, $12,700-$14,350) near Philadelphia." Time, "A Lift in Living," September 21, 1959, 28.

In 1953, houses in Eastgate sold for between $11,000 and $11,500. Gregory C. Randall, America's Original GI Town: Park Forest, Illinois (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), 174-176.

Using the NASA Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator to calculate the cost of a home in Eastgate in 1960 gives a result of $12,199 to $12,753.50. National Aeronautics and Space Adminsitration Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator, http://www1.jsc.nasa.gov/bu2/inflateCPI.html

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Milton Lewis Milton Lewis was a sales manager in Park Terrace in 1959. Time, "A Lift in Living," September 21, 1959, 28.

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Park Terrace Lewis was quoted in Time as saying to a young, house-hunting couple in Park Terrace: "Of course, you folks are aware that Park Terrace is a Negro development." Time, "A Lift in Living," September 21, 1959, 28.

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Markham Park Terrace Image scanned from Time, "A Lift in Living," September 21, 1959, 28. Although the image was included in the article that featured Frank Derrick as a homeowner in Park Terrace, it is not certain that the man on the lawn and the woman in the doorway are the Derricks.

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Frank Derrick Frank Derrick was a real homeowner in Park Terrace. The image on this page was taken from the same article that featured Frank Derrick as a homewner in Park Terrace, but it is not certain that the man on the lawn and the woman in the doorway are the Derricks. Time "A Lift in Living," September 21, 1959, 28.

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homes This is not a direct quote from Frank Derrick, although the content of it is taken from Time, "A Lift in Living," September 21, 1959, 28. "Postman Frank Derrick ($4,000 a year) lived on Chicago's South Side, decided to move to suburban Park Terrace. Says his wife Geraldene: 'We didn't have a down payment. But Frank was determined. He took out a $20 bill and anded it to the salesman and said, 'This is to show that I mean business.' We started to save for the down payment on the budget plan and finally got a G.I. mortgage.' The Derricks now have a brick, three-bedroom ranch house with two TV sets, an air conditioner, piano, a dog, two birds, a 1953 Chrysler, and a Zoysia grass lawn that is the envy of their neighbors. 'You know, a lot of Negroes never think too much about their houses and their lawns in the city,' says Mrs. Derrick. 'But when they come out here they really put all of themselves into their homes. It lifts them up.'"

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The median family income of a white family receiving an FHA loan in 1956 was $6,173. Davis McEntire, Residence and Race: Final and Comprehensive Report to the Commission on Race and Housing (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960), 220.Using the NASA Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator gives a result of $6,716 for 1960. The family in this simulation makes close to this if the wife's income is included. For the purpose of this simulation the wife's income is not included, making it unlikely the family would get an FHA-insured loan.

The median family income of white families with VA mortgages in 1956 was $5,870. Davis McEntire, Residence and Race: Final and Comprehensive Report to the Commission on Race and Housing (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960), 220. Using the NASA Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator gives a result of $6,386.56 for 1960. The VA considered counting a wife's income if the veteran couldn't qualify on the basis of his income alone, but only under certain circumstances, including the wife's "age, the nature and length of her employment, and the composition of the family [meaning number of children]." Emily Card, "Women, Housing Access, and Mortgage Credit," Signs, Vol. 5, No. 3, Supplement: Women and the American City (Spring, 1980), S217-S218. This simulation argues that the VA would not count the white wife's income because she was young enough to have a third child, after which they might consider to include her income. Lenders were often hesitant to make a VA-guaranteed loan on expensive properties because the maximum guarantee of a VA loan was $7,500. To avoid such risks, some large financial institutions would not accept VA loans if the unguaranteed portion exceeded 50 per cent of the appraised value of the property. Saul B. Klaman, The Postwar Residential Mortgage Market: A Study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961), 93-94. The unguaranteed portion of a loan on a home in Markham would be only about 42 percent--a more acceptable risk to lenders. Therefore, although this family's effective income is less than the median, the possibility that they might find a lender to approve them for a VA loan existed.

The median family income of white families with conventional mortgages in 1956 was $5,750. Davis McEntire, Residence and Race: Final and Comprehensive Report to the Commission on Race and Housing (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960), 220. Using the NASA Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator gives a result of $6,256 for 1960. The white family in this simulation makes this amount if the wife's income is included, but it is not. However, $4,400 is a reasonable income for a $13,000 house, and the arbitrary nature of mortgage lending practices meant that the family could have happened to find an institution willing to count all or some of the wife's income. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Mortgage Money: Who Gets It? A Case Study in Mortgage Lending Discrimination in Hartford, Connecticut (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1974), 18-29.

Although the low interest rates associated with VA and FHA loans benefited borrowers, the higher interest rates on conventional mortgages benefited lenders, making them more attractive to them. Saul B. Klaman explains, “in the face of generally rising interest rates and yields, federally underwritten mortgages with less flexible rates became unattractive to investors with alternative uses of funds.” Federally underwritten mortgages suffered a competitive interest rate disadvantage compared to conventional mortgages. The FHA was legally able to increase the permitted maximum interest rate on FHA loans to make them more competitive with conventional loans (as it did for example in December of 1956 when it increased the interest rate from 4 ½ to 5 per cent. However, the VA had no authority to increase the interest rate on VA loans, which was at 4 ½ percent as 1956 ended. Federally-underwritten mortgages, although advantageous to borrowers, could be difficult to obtain depending on the status of the market at any given time. See Saul B. Klaman, The Postwar Residential Mortgage Market: A Study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961), 63 and 73.

The median family income of white families with no mortgage in 1956 was $3,568. Davis McEntire, Residence and Race: Final and Comprehensive Report to the Commission on Race and Housing (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960), 220. Using the NASA Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator gives a result of $3,881.98 for 1960.

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In 1956 Congress reduced the minimum down payment requirements on existing homes bought with FHA loans to match those for new homes in order to stimulate building by facilitating the sale of old houses by owners seeking new ones, so presumably the down payment on an existing home would be the same as a new home for the 1958 data in this table. Leo Grebler, "Housing Issues in Economic Stabilization Policy," Occasional Paper 72 (Washington, D.C.: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. 1960), 72.

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