Homeownership Gains Will Fuel Economy.

President Bush this fall convened a homeownership summit in Washington, D.C., to promote homeownership opportunities for minorities. The following is an excerpt of his remarks.

More and more people own their homes in America today. Two-thirds of all Americans own their homes, yet we have a problem here in America because fewer than half of Hispanics and half of African-Americans own their home. That's a homeownership gap.

I set an ambitious goal. It's one that I believe we can achieve. It's a clear goal, that by the end of this decade we'll increase the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million families.

Homeownership is also an important part of our economic vitality. If - when we meet this project, this goal, according to our secretary of Housing and Urban Development, we will have added an additional $256 billion to the economy by encouraging 5.5 million new homeowners in America. The activity - the economic activity stimulated with the additional purchasers, the additional buyers, the additional demand will be upwards of $256 billion. And that's important because it will help people find work.

Homeownership education is critical. And so today, I'm pleased to announce that we're going to distribute $35 million in 2003 to more than 100 national, state and local organizations that promote homeownership through buyer education.

And, of course, one of the larger obstacles to minority homeownership is financing, is the ability to have their dream financed. Right now, we have a program that all of you are familiar with, maybe our fellow Americans are, and that's what they call a Section 8 housing program, that provides billions of dollars in vouchers to help low-income Americans with their rent. It encourages leasing. We think it's important that we use those vouchers, that federal money to help low-income Americans go from being somebody who leases to somebody who owns, that we use the Section 8 program to not only help with downpayments, but to help with continuing monthly mortgage payments after they're into their new home. It is a way to help us meet this dream of 5.5 ...