THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for coming
today. You're probably wondering what we're doing here. I'll tell you
what we're going to do, we're going to talk about one of the most
exciting things that can happen to a person, and that is the purchase
of a home. That's what we're here to discuss: homeownership and how
best to help people buy a home; and what is it like to be someone who
wonders about homeownership and the struggles of trying to figure out
all the fine print and how to get something done. That's what we're
really here to talk about.
But before we do, I want to thank Mary Frances Reilly of the YMCA,
for her -- (applause.) Mary Frances told me she was a runner. I told
her I used to be a runner. (Laughter.) Turns out, when you get older
it's kind of hard to run a lot, isn't it Mary Frances? But thank you
for your hospitality, I'm so grateful you're here.
I want to thank my friend, Alphonso Jackson, who is the Acting
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. That means he's waiting
for Senate confirmation, which I'm confident the Senate will do soon.
Where are you, Alphonso? There he is. Thanks for coming; I'm glad
you're here. (Applause.)
Alphonso and I have set a job: we want to close the minority
homeownership gap in America; we want more people owning their own
home; and we want more of our minorities owning their own home, as
well. We think it's in the best interests of the country that more
people own something. When you own something you call your own, you
have a vital stake in the future of our nation. So we've set this goal
and we'll talk about some ways how to achieve this goal. But Alphonso
is the right man for the job, he's run housing authorities before, he
knows what he's doing. The Senate needs to get him in there pretty
quick.
Speaking about senators, I'm honored that Senator Arlen Specter is
with me today. Arlen, thank you for coming. (Applause.) I consider
Arlen Specter an ally and a friend. Oh, he doesn't do everything you
ask him to do all the time, but when you need him -- when you need him,
he's there. He's an independent voice for the great state of
Pennsylvania and he's doing a fine job as a United States Senator. I
appreciate you coming. (Applause.)
Jim Gerlach is with us, as well. Jim, thanks for coming; I'm proud
you're here. (Applause.) As is Congressman Jim Greenwood. Jim,
thanks for coming. (Applause.) It's good to see both of the
congressmen. Thanks for taking your time out.
I see that Chairman Jim Matthews is with us. Chairman, I'm glad
you're here. (Applause.) He is the smart brother. (Laughter.) Well
-- it's an inside joke.
I appreciate other county commissioners being here. Commissioner
Ellis and state and local officials. Thank you all for coming.
Before we begin a little talk about the economy and homeownership,
I do want to make mention of a fellow named Robert Bright. Robert,
where are you? There he is. Thank you for coming, Robert. You don't
know Robert. I didn't know him until I landed at the airport. He is a
mentor. He is what I call a soldier in the army of compassion. You
know, a lot of times we talk about the strength of our country being
our military -- and that is part of the strength of the country and we
intend to keep the military strong; or the fact that we're a wealthy
nation, and that's important. But the true strength of the country is
the heart and souls of our citizens. It's really the true strength of
America, the fact that there are people who are willing to take time
out of their life to volunteer, to save a life, or to make sure a child
has got a better future.
Robert has been a mentor at Big Brothers and Big Sisters. He knows
what I know: that you can change our country one heart and one soul at
a time; that government is not a loving organization, it's an
organization of law and justice, but love emanates in our hearts. And
the reason I've asked Robert to come to introduce him is because I
encourage anybody who wants to serve their country to do -- to mentor a
child or to be involved with the YMCA or to get involved with the Girl
Scouts and Boy Scouts; to make a difference by taking time out of your
life to help heal a soul that hurts.
Robert, thanks for the example you've set, and thanks for coming
today. (Applause.)
I hope you can tell that I'm an optimistic fellow, because -- and
one reason why is because I've seen what this country has been
through. We went through a recession and a stock market decline, we
went through an attack. We got attacked by a bunch of cold-blooded
killers. And the attack hurt. It hurt our psyche because we thought
oceans could protect us. It hurt the fact -- we lost a million jobs
after September the 11th.
But we're a strong nation, and we're a resilient nation. We began
to recover, and then we discovered another thing that was harmful to
economic growth and vitality and confidence, and that is we had some
people who didn't tell the truth that were running corporations in
America. We had some CEOs that weren't honest with their shareholders
and their employees. And we passed tough laws that said, we're not
going to tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America. You're now
beginning to see on your TV screens what we're talking about. People
are being held to account. And that hurt our economy.
And then, as you know, I made a very difficult decision, but the
right decision, to secure our country by holding Saddam Hussein to
account. But nevertheless, we had the -- if you remember, we had on
our TV screens the phrase, "March to war." Any time a nation is
marching to war, it's not conducive for confident thinking. Nobody
wants to march to war. It's a negative thought. Now we're marching to
peace, by the way. We're on our way to --(applause.)
But it was tough times. And yet we're growing. The economy is
strong, and getting stronger. The manufacturing report today was very
positive, another indication of the economy strengthening.
Unemployment is dropping here in the state of Pennsylvania. There are
still people looking for work, make no mistake about it, but it's
getting better. Interest rates are low, which is important if you're a
first-time home buyer. Inflation is down, which is important. We're
going to keep working on jobs.
One thing we're not going to do is get ourselves isolated from the
world. I will fight off economic isolationism, which would be bad for
job creation here in the state of Pennsylvania. But we've overcome a
lot. And that's why I'm optimistic. We've overcome a lot because
we've got people who refuse to be intimidated by terrorists. We've
overcome a lot because of a tax policy that left money, more money in
the hands of the people that earned it.
And when you've got more money in your pocket, you go out and
demand an additional good or a service. And when somebody demands a
good or a service, in our economy, somebody produces the good or a
service. And when somebody makes that good or a service, it means
somebody is likely to keep a job or find work.
The tax policies we passed made a lot of sense, and there's more to
do. The first thing that Congress needs to do is not take that tax
relief away from the people and not raise the taxes on the people.
(Applause.) I don't know if you followed this debate that we're having
up there in the nation's capital right now -- or down there in the
nation's capital, I'm used to saying up there in the nation's capital.
If Congress doesn't act, the Child Credit is going to go down, which is
raising taxes on the people with children. If the Congress doesn't
act, the Marriage Penalty is going up.
By the way, it doesn't make any sense to penalize marriage in the
tax code. We ought to be encouraging marriage, not penalizing marriage
in our tax code. (Applause.) If the Congress doesn't act, they're
going to be raising the taxes on people who work. And it makes no
sense.
There's other things we need to do, as well. We need to worry
about the cost of health care. Small businesses need to be able to
pool their -- be able to pool risk with association health care plans,
so their employees can have more affordable health care. We need to
expand health savings accounts. We need medical liability reform in
Washington, D.C. (Applause.) We need an energy bill. It's hard to be
a manufacturer in the state of Pennsylvania if you're worried about
where your next energy is coming from. And we need a bill.
There's a lot of things we need to do in Washington to make sure
that this economy continues to grow and people can find work. And one
of the things we need to do is to continue with good housing policy.
And that's what we're here to talk about today. Homeownership in
America is at the highest rate ever. (Applause.)
It's a fantastic statement to say that, isn't it? Homeownership is
at the highest rate ever. That means there's more people ever in our
history are able to say, "I own something. I own my own home." I went
to Pearl's home and it was pretty special. Really special, wasn't it?
She said, "This is my home." When I walked up the stairs, she didn't
say this is anybody else's home, but her home. She said, "Would you
come into my home, please. Would you come in and meet my four children
in our home." And it was a fantastic experience to come to a first-time
homeowners's home and visit with her family. It made me feel good. It
made her feel nervous. She hadn't seen that many automobiles on her
street. (Laughter.)
But she was great, and it was wonderful to see. We're going to
talk to Pearl in a minute about how she made the decision to buy a
home. See, if somebody is listening to this program, I want you to
listen to Pearl's story. Probably in her mind, she never was going to
ever own a home until something happened. There are some things we can
do in government policy to help people own a home.
One of the things we can do is to help people with the down
payment. A lot of people say, I want to own a home, and then they get
looking at the down payment, and they realize, they can't even get
beyond the down payment phase. And so we passed a good law out of the
United States Congress to help people with their down payments. That
money will start to be disbursed soon, with a program such as Genesis,
to help people with the down payment.
The other thing we can do, and you're going to hear some stories
today about how these housing counselors help people get beyond the
fear of signing a contract full of small print. I mean, if you've
never owned a home, and you're looking at these contracts, it's a
little intimidating. If you think that the President coming to your
house is intimidating, wait until you look at one of those contracts,
isn't that right? (Laughter.)
And so we're going to talk about a program that we've instituted
through HUD that helps with educating people. And Nikki is going to
talk to us about that in a second. I believe Congress ought to pass
tax credits to encourage home building, affordable homes in areas that
need affordable homes.
We've set a grand goal. We want to close the minority
homeownership gap, and there are three practical ways to encourage the
construction of a home and to help home buyers buy a home. I readily
concede there's nothing like low interest rates to stimulate
homeownership. And so I suggest that people listening out there, if
you're interested in buying a home, take advantage of the low rates.
Take advantage of those low rates. Lock in good, low mortgages to make
your future so bright.
Nikki Holcroft is with us today. Nikki, tell us what you do.
Thank you for coming. Nikki is a sweet soul, who cares deeply about
the people she's helping.
* * * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: You might have more than one customer out there,
you know? (Laughter.)
One of the things, as I said, we emphasize is counseling services.
It sounds like kind of a simple thing, but it's a profound opportunity
for help. And you'll hear from Pearl. Are you about ready?
(Laughter.)
MS. CERDAN: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: How many kids have you got?
MS. CERDAN: I have six, but four of them are with me.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I met them all. How many cats?
MS. CERDAN: One.
THE PRESIDENT: I met it. (Laughter.) When did you start thinking
about buying a home?
MS. CERDAN: Well, like Nikki said, I had -- about three and a half
years ago, I had started -- I was thinking then, but it was only a
thought. And then I came back --
THE PRESIDENT: Was it a dream, or a thought?
MS. CERDAN: Well, at first it was a thought, but then it became a
dream.
THE PRESIDENT: I got you.
MS. CERDAN: Did I say that right? (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: It's your dream, it's not ours. (Laughter.)
You're doing great.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: Now, Judy is the co-founder of Genesis -- is that
an accurate statement?
MS. MEMBERG: Yes, it is.
THE PRESIDENT: She's a social entrepreneur.
MS. MEMBERG: I've never been called that, but okay. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: It's a plus. (Applause.)
MS. MEMBERG: Sounds good. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Why don't you tell us how you got the idea, and
talk about Genesis right quick.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: It's interesting, this Ardmore project was on an
abandoned filling station.
MS. MEMBERG: Yes it was.
THE PRESIDENT: And you got brownfield money.
MS. MEMBERG: Yes, there were some environmental problems with
gasoline in the soil that had to be cleaned up. And there was some
funding that made that available, because anytime you get into
environmental problems, it gets very expensive.
THE PRESIDENT: Right. And so when did you see the house you're
going to buy?
MS. CERDAN: When did I see it?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, first see it.
MS. CERDAN: The first time I'd seen it was I think, like July.
THE PRESIDENT: Really?
MS. CERDAN: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: And you bought it in --
MS. CERDAN: December the 16th of 2003.
THE PRESIDENT: Fantastic. Homeowner. (Applause.)
Penny is with us. Penny, you're in the process of buying a home.
Is that accurate?
MS. WOLK: That's accurate, Mr. President. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: All right, let her go. (Laughter.) Tell us about
yourself, please, ma'am.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: And so where are we in the process? Judy, maybe
you can give us a hand here?
MS. MEMBERG: Penny is going to be one of the buyers in the second
phase of the project, and there's four more houses are going to be
built and she should be signing an agreement of sale in about two
weeks. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Explain what it's like to be somebody who
wants to buy a home and you're kind of lost, I guess, in the process,
is maybe a good way to say it. What does Genesis do, how do they -- if
somebody is listening out there that probably is in your position --
MS. HOLCROFT: What does Genesis do?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, how do you find out how to --
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: You can't live in a home unless you've got somebody
who is willing to build them. And Scott Cannon is a homebuilder. He's
the President of Cannon Custom Homes. (Applause.)
MR. CANNON: Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Did you bring your family with you -- I can see.
(Laughter.)
Mr. CANNON: I've got the family here.
THE PRESIDENT: Tell us about your business. Tell us about what
it's like to be a homebuilder in the Philadelphia area.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: One of the things we were talking about backstage
was the -- about how if there is a local forum, that ought to be good
enough for the federal government, I guess is the country-boy way of
summarizing what we're talking about. And that's beginning to happen.
MR. CANNON: I haven't seen it yet.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it should be happening. I mean, it's
supposed to be happening soon, is what I understand. (Laughter.)
MR. CANNON: To a theater near you. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: That's right. How about tort reform? You could
use a little tort reform, couldn't you? (Applause.)
MR. CANNON: Well, we could use tort reform, sure, the class-action
lawsuits, and things like that, that we truly do fear, of course. But,
again, that's just a cost that we pass on to Pearl and Penny. It's not
something that -- really you're not coming after me, I just have to pay
more for insurance and I pass it on to the home buyer.
THE PRESIDENT: No, that's exactly right. Are you building any
homes these days?
MR. CANNON: Yes, we're building a few. We've had a challenge the
last year or so with the weather, but things are going good.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I might be able to do something with the
bureaucracy, but -- (laughter.)
MR. CANNON: That would be enough. (Laughter.) We'll deal with
the weather. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Judy, do you have anything else you want to share
with anybody who might be listening out there about buying a home?
MS. MEMBERG: I think the thing that's really important is that
with housing counseling, anyone can put together a plan on how they can
become a home buyer. Some people, it's a very short process; some
people are very familiar with being homeowners, or their family has
been homeowners. But a lot of people who, if their parents aren't
homeowners really don't know where to start. And a good housing
counseling agency can really guide you through that process.
THE PRESIDENT: Right. And I presume there's a lot of housing
counseling agencies around the area?
MS. MEMBERG: There are a few. There are many in Philadelphia.
There are a few in Montgomery County. But there's a lot of good
counselors out there to find one that matches up with your need.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Well, listen, if somebody's listening, I
hope, and are interested in buying a home, there's opportunity here in
this part of the world. You've heard two ladies say that they've been
able to overcome the fears of homeownership and kind of the mental
blocks associated with homeownership, because they were able to receive
counseling. And the counseling is available. We want more people
owning their home. That's what we want. We want you to feel
comfortable about coming -- thinking about buying your own home so,
that when somebody knocks on your door, you open that door and say,
welcome to my home, just like this good lady did to me today.
Listen, thank you all for coming. It's been a joy to be here. I
want to thank you for your stories. May God bless you all.
(Applause.)