"After World War II mass construction of housing in suburban locations became very common. Due to the dire need of housing, the federal government provided housing programs that started massive housing construction. Following the war high marriage and birth rates lead to families that needed a place to live. These problems lead to the increase of large scale housing production in the United States.
The Levitt family and their already successful construction company, took advantage of the housing boom and started mass construction of houses. Technological advances in tools, materials, and productivity lead to a totally new construction process. This fast paced construction process lead to the largest housing development built by a single builder, at that time, Levittown. Almost every mass construction builder copied the Levitts' new techniques. The Levitts soon had other mass production projects in various areas, with every project learning and improving on the mistakes of the previous. This lead to enhanced mass production living areas, and thus more people moving to these areas. In 1954, nine million people had moved to the suburbs in the previous decade.
Jackson states major characteristics of the postwar suburbs:
Neighborhoods built on the outer edges of the city
Low density of people per square mile
Architectural similarity
Easy availability
Economic and racial homogeneity
Jackson believes that the suburban housing boom may have caused these effects:
Weakened extended family relations
Lead to the decline in the central cities
Provided a common mold lifestyle for the suburban people to follow."
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