The VA loans in the 1950s played a significant role in allowing people to moved to a suburban home, and accelerated the process thereby enabling returning service people to establish a household almost immediately. Many people moved to subdivisions because there was no housing available in the city. The demand for housing in the 1950s and early 1960s was strong. Suburban housing was not only available, it was affordable. Once the wave started, it was unstoppable.
Retail follows residential.
This led to the development of shopping centers in areas where people lived, which in turn led to the decline of downtown as a place to shop, which led to urban renewal projects, which led to destruction of the integrity of many downtowns. Downtown Jackson is a good case study. In the 1950s and 1960s it was a vibrant retail and commercial center. As people moved farther away from the central city, shopping centers such as Westland Plaza, Meadowbrook Mart, Delta Mart and Bright s Center popped up. In order to revitalize the central city, entire blocks of downtown Jackson were bulldozed in the late 60s and early 70s to make way for parking garages, new office buildings and federal buildings.