"Not the only alternatives"

What else was there that was available?

This can be blue-skied to death.

I was a vet of WW2. I found an affordable, comfortable house in a new suburb, put up by a reputable builder. Prairie dogs were displaced and land was re-contoured for housing, but for me and many thousand vets newly educated (GI Bills) and with a job, or with a loan for a start-up business, and a "start-up family," I had no alternative except to live poor in a cheap flat.