Bogged down in California with two huge, costly, unfinished rental housing projects, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. got a helpful suggestion from WPB: why not just forget about its $25 million investment until after the war? Met's answer to WPB was a qualified No.
Next to the U.S. Government, Metropolitan, owned by 30 million policyholders, is the world's biggest investor in rental housing. As housing experts, Met and the Government had much in common—until the war. Now the Government wants quick, cheap housing, near war plants. Metropolitan, with $1 billion already tied up in real-estate mortgages, is interested in durable materials,...