For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 17, 2002
Fact Sheet: President Bush Calls for Expanding Opportunities to Homeownership
Today's Presidential Action
Today, President Bush announced a new goal to help increase the
number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million before the end of
the decade. The President's aggressive housing agenda will help dismantle the
barriers to homeownership by providing down payment assistance,
increasing the supply of affordable homes, increasing support for
self-help homeownership programs, and simplifying the home buying
process & increasing education. The President also issued "America's
Homeownership Challenge" to the real estate and mortgage finance
industries to join in his effort to increase the number of minority
homeowners by taking concrete steps to tear down the barriers to
homeownership that face minority families.
Background on the President's Homeownership Agenda
Buying a home is the biggest single investment most people will
make in their lives. Homeownership is a cornerstone of America's
healthy, vibrant communities, and benefits individual families by
helping them build stability and long term financial security. But
sadly, homeownership is out of reach for many Americans --
especially for minority families. For millions of these families,
homeownership is a distant, unreachable dream.
President Bush has a comprehensive agenda to help increase the
number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million before the end of
the decade.
While the overall homeownership rate has reached an all time high
of nearly 68 percent, the statistics show a clear and persistent
homeownership gap:
- Despite increases in minority homeownership during the decade
of the 1990s, large persistent gaps between non-Hispanic whites and
minorities remain and have narrowed only slightly;
- According to
HUD, in 1994 the minority homeownership rate was 26.8 percent below the
rate for white households;
- The African-American homeownership rate
was 27.5 percentage points below the white rate, and the Hispanic rate
was 28.8 percentage points below the white rate;
- The second quarter
Census data for 2002 shows that non-Hispanic whites have a 74.3%
homeownership rate, while African-Americans have a 48% rate and
Hispanics a 47.6% rate; and
- Asian-Americans and other races have a
53.7% homeownership rate.
A new report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) -- which analyzed the most recent homeownership data from
the U.S. Census Bureau -- highlights the many barriers that prevent
minority families from owning their own home. The barriers include:
- A lack of inventory of affordable single-family housing
available for sale in many areas where a majority of residents are
minority families;
- A need for down payment assistance, which
affects minority families to a greater extent than non-Hispanic whites
because they have less accumulated wealth that can be used to help
children with down payments;
- A lack of access to affordable
mortgage credit;
- A lack of understanding of the homebuying process;
- Weak credit histories, often arising from a poor understanding of
financial matters and where financial counseling is required;
- A
lack of information about available homeownership programs in the
community; and
- Language difficulties or cultural differences.
It doesn't have to be this way. The President's agenda will help
tear down the barriers to homeownership that stand in the way
of our nation's African-American, Hispanic and other minority families
by:
Providing Downpayment Assistance. The single biggest barrier
to homeownership is accumulating funds for a down payment. The
President has proposed $200 million annually for the American Dream
Downpayment Fund to help roughly 40,000 families a year with their down
payment and closing costs.
Increasing the Supply of Affordable Homes. The President wants
to dramatically increase the supply of homes available to low and
moderate income families. The President has proposed the Single-Family
Affordable Housing Tax Credit, which will provide approximately $2.4
billion to encourage the production of 200,000 affordable homes for
sale to low and moderate income families.
Increasing Support for Self-Help Homeownership Programs. The
President's budget triples funding for organizations, such as Habitat
for Humanity, that help families help themselves become homeowners
through sweat equity and volunteerism in their communities.
Simplifying the Home Buying Process & Increasing Education.
When buying a home today a buyer faces a confusing and complicated
process. The President and HUD want to empower homebuyers by
simplifying the home buying process so consumers can better understand
and benefit from cost savings. The President also wants to expand
financial education efforts so that families can understand what they
need to do to become homeowners.
The President also believes that government alone can't close
America's homeownership gap. It is critical that our government
challenge the private sector to take concrete steps to tear
down the barriers to homeownership that face minority families.
The President is issuing "America's Homeownership Challenge" to the
real estate and mortgage finance industries to join in his effort
to increase the number of minority homeowners by 5.5 million
families by the end of the decade. Many organizations have
already responded to the President's challenge by committing to:
Substantially increase by at least $440 billion, the financial
commitment made by the government sponsored enterprises involved in the
secondary mortgage market, specifically targeted toward the minority
market;
Launching twenty-five different local initiatives across the
nation, geared toward eliminating the specific homeownership barriers
faced by minority families in those communities;
Raising $750 million in below-market-rate investments by 2007,
which will work in collaboration with local homeownership initiatives
and be targeted to heavily minority program areas;
Pursuing strategic partnerships in 20 top housing markets
between homebuilders, lenders, local officials, and community leaders
to develop approaches that address the local challenges to building
homes for minority families living in urban centers;
Establishing faith-based housing partnerships between the
participants and at least 100 churches, mosques, synagogues, and other
faith-based institutions;
Aggressively developing new mortgage products so that
conventional market alternatives are available to combat the predatory
loan products that are disproportionately targeted to minorities;
Creating new mortgage products to meet the unique needs of
recent immigrants;
Dramatically expanding financial education efforts for
minorities, providing financial counseling to at least 380,000 minority
families, and taking measures at the local level to reduce predatory
lending; and
Establishing multilingual, consumer-oriented internet Web sites
designed to help minorities overcome barriers to homeownership,
including creation of a central data bank of affordable housing
programs made available to real estate agents when working with
clients.
For more information on the President's initiatives please visit
www.whitehouse.gov.
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