Evaluating the significance of San Lorenzo Village, a mid-20th century suburban community

From the article:

As late as 1938, the typical builder constructed no more than 4 single-family homes a year […] The small scale of production paralleled comparatably low demand […] Lending institutions rarely financed more than 60 to 70 percent of a the purchase price, with mortgages of five years or less that ended in a balloon payment. These terms prevented much of the middle class and nearly all the working class from buying homes […]

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The major catalyst for change came with the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly referred to as the “GI Bill”…

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During the war, the Federal Government became a major customer in the housing market, constructing two million housing units for defense workers near factories, arsenals, and shipyards. In the San Francisco Area, cities such as Oakland, Richmond, and Vallejo saw a huge influx of defense industry workers […]

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Builders with experience in wartime housing construction were uniquely positioned to become large-scale housing developers after the war […]

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[T]he use of temporary sawmills on site and building of complete sets of lumber and other materials for each house became known as the “California method.” By 1949, operative builders became a major force in the housing market, with just 4 percent of all builders being responsible for 45% of new housing units.

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The new housing developments were often located well beyond city limits or the older streetcar suburbs, in unincorporated areas without zoning restrictions. As a result, community builders often acted as planners in the absence of government planning, working out forms that came to be considered standards for development. While community builders were primarily interested in constructing houses and commercial buildings that would bring a return on their investment, they also had to plan for facilities such as schools, churches, parks, libraries, and fire stations.

[…] Curved streets, looping streets, and the short cul-de-sac were all used extensively during this period. In addition to aesthetic considerations, the primary motive was to make residential streets safer, especially for children, by reducing speed and volume of through traffic. The new type of street plan can be seen in San Lorenzo Village, where only 6 of the 86 streets in the historic district intersect with Hesperian Boulevard, the main traffic artery through the district.