William J. Levitt: What Would the Suburban Be Like Without Him?

For his contributions to the new suburban growth, American real estate developer William J. Levitt earned the credit as the father of modern American suburbia. Levitt used mass production techniques for the construction on large housing development projects that sell under $10,000. This paved the way for the development of other relatively affordable suburban developments throughout the US.

Levitt was not the inventor of communities of single family homes. However, it was Levitt’s innovation that popularized the idea of planned communities of affordable houses after the World War II.

When Levitt was the height of his career, he is constructing one suburban house every sixteen minutes. This success was comparable to the automobile assembly line of Henry Ford. Levitt’s success in real estate is one of the most visible successes in business until today. Many real estate developers of the new era have catered to common racism of by developing “white only” neighborhoods. Environmentalists also used Levitt’s suburban lifestyle to address certain issues.