For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
December 16, 2003
Fact Sheet: Expanding Homeownership Opportunities for All Americans
December 16, 2003
Expanding Homeownership Opportunities for All Americans
Today's Presidential Action
Today, President Bush signed into law the American Dream Downpayment
Act of 2003, which will help approximately 40,000 families a year with
their down payment and closing costs, and further strengthen America's
housing market. This legislation complements the President's
aggressive housing agenda announced in 2002 to dismantle the barriers
to homeownership.
Today, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the
Census Bureau released data showing that new home construction in
November reached its highest level in nearly 20 years. Overall housing
starts rose 4.5 percent from October and rose 17.6 percent from
November of 2002. Single-family housing starts totaled 1,695,000
(SAAR) in November, up 3.3 percent from October and up 20.8 percent
from November 2002 -- a record for single-family starts.
The strong housing market is beneficial for communities across the
Nation. America's families have been refinancing due to the lowest
mortgage rates in 45 years, saving hundreds of dollars a month on their
home payments. The U.S. homeownership rate was 68.4% in the third
quarter?its highest level ever.
Background on Today's Presidential Action
The biggest barrier to homeownership is often accumulating funds
for a down payment. In June 2002, President Bush proposed the American
Dream Downpayment Fund to help low-income families take much-needed
steps to own a home of their own, and announced the goal of increasing
the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million before the
end of the decade. President Bush's aggressive housing agenda to
dismantle the barriers to homeownership includes providing down payment
assistance through the American Dream Downpayment Fund; increasing the
supply of affordable homes through the Single-Family Affordable Housing
Tax Credit; increasing support for self-help homeownership programs
like Habitat for Humanity; simplifying the home-buying process; and
increasing home-buying education.
Dismantling the Barriers to Homeownership
President Bush issued America's Homeownership Challenge to the real
estate
and mortgage finance industries to encourage them to join the
effort to
close the gap that exists between the homeownership rates of
minorities
and non-minorities. The Bush Administration and the America's
Homeownership Challenge partners in the private sector are working
hard to
increase minority homeownership, and are seeing positive results:
There are more than 1 million new minority homeowners in the U.S.
since the President's announcement 18 months ago.
Nearly 1,500 low-income families are now using housing vouchers to pay
their monthly mortgage or other costs of owning a home, and HUD is
working with public housing authorities to allow the sale of some units
to tenants.
The Federal Trade Commission and HUD are working together to protect
homebuyers from predatory lenders.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is continuing to implement
the Money Smart program, which is providing financial education
services for potential homebuyers.
Through America's Homeownership Challenge, more than 2 dozen companies
have made commitments to increase minority homeownership, including
pledges to provide more than $1.1 trillion in mortgage purchases for
minority homebuyers this decade.
The Bush Administration has begun the final stage of its effort to
reduce closing costs, simplify the settlement paperwork, and eliminate
surprise closing costs for American homebuyers by reforming the rules
governing the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.
Strengthening Economic Activity
According to an analysis released in 2002 by HUD, meeting the
President's
goal to close the housing gap will involve $256 billion in economic
activity in the form of construction and remodeling jobs, spending
on
household goods, and other benefits. Because of rising home
values,
Americans are enjoying more than $2.5 trillion of greater housing
wealth
than they did at the beginning of 2001.
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