Practice Test: Reading Comprehension - 35 | 100 RCs for GMAT PDF Download

Directions: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions as follows:

The ill-fated Home Construction Lending Act of 1901 (the HCLA) was intended to help families pay for the construction of their homes. Americans were flocking to rented apartments in big cities (as were immigrants from around the world), and the biggest supporters of the HCLA were builders and real estate firms located in rural areas. Their hope was that a family that could afford to buy property and build a house in a rural area, as opposed to renting an inexpensive, but crowded and possibly dangerous, apartment in a city, would choose the former. Ostensibly, the HCLA would make it easier for potential homeowners to borrow by providing a federally backed guarantee to the lender, which at the time was more likely to be an insurance company than a bank. In other cases, the government would actually buy the property and pay for the construc-tion of the house. A family could move in and make payments to the government over a much longer period than they could if they were repaying a commercial lender. Unlike the typical amortized 30-year mortgage of today, home loans at the time were usually repaid over three or perhaps five years, and the borrower made a balloon payment of the entire principal at the end of the term. An HCLA loan from the government could be repaid—interest and principal — over as many as 15 years, and did not require a large final payment. 

Many lenders, however, did not actually want to have their loans guaranteed, and they resisted providing HCLA loans. For these companies, more profit could be realized by repossessing property when borrowers defaulted on their loans. As to the properties bought and resold by the government, the relatively small payments made at a fixed interest rate cost the government money, and this arrangement was abandoned. 

In the same year that saw the passage of the HCLA, the Tenement House Act forced builders in New York to improve the condition of their apartments. Lighting, ventilation, and toilet facilities were improved, and the Tenement House Commission was established to enforce the new law. Other cities followed suit. Urban life was now more attractive to men and women who would have otherwise preferred to live in a rural area, but who needed the employment opportunities that the cities could provide.