The National Association of Realtors praised President George W. Bush and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez for their commitment to increasing minority homeownership opportunities and pledged its full support for the White House minority homeownership initiative announced yesterday. Regional Vice President Bob McMillan of Decatur, Ala., represented NAR -- one of about a dozen partners in this public-private initiative -- at this morning's announcement ceremony at St. Paul AME Church in Atlanta.

NAR is dedicated to increasing the ranks of minority homeowners nationwide and along with the White House initiative, is pursuing several programs that it believes will help ease the affordable housing burden, particularly for underserved segments of the population. These initiatives include NAR's new Housing Opportunity Program, which is an aggressive effort to stimulate affordable housing, improve access to all types of housing, and close the homeownership gap nationwide. NAR and five industry partners established a program called the HOPE (Home Ownership Participation for Everyone) Awards last year to identify and recognize individuals and organizations that have promoted homeownership among minorities.

NAR is also committed to working with federal, state and local partners to sponsor homebuying counseling and fairs for minorities.

"NAR welcomes the Bush administration's efforts to remove barriers to minority homeownership and is proud to work with the White House to improve homeownership rates among minorities across this great country," said NAR President Martin Edwards Jr.

"This new White House initiative dovetails with NAR's own efforts to increase minority homeownership opportunities, such as our new Housing Opportunity Program and the HOPE Awards, which recognize outstanding efforts to promote homeownership by minorities. Realtors believe that growing the number of minority homeowners must be a national priority."

The "Renewing the Dream" initiative, an innovative tax credit program announced here today by President Bush as a means to help low-income Americans, particularly minorities, achieve the dream of homeownership, also received a strong endorsement from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

"The nation's home builders strongly support the President's challenge to increase the number of minority home owners by 5.5 million over the next decade," said Gary Garczynski, president of NAHB and a home builder/developer from Woodbridge, Va. "Closing the gap between those who can afford homeownership and those who can't is good for the housing market, good for the economy and good for America. It will also create new jobs, strengthen families and communities, and spur economic growth in many distressed neighborhoods across the country."

Noting that nearly three-quarters of all white American households own their homes while less than half of all African American and Hispanic American families are home owners, the President called on real estate industry leaders to join with the government, with non-profit organizations and with private sector financial institutions in a major nationwide push to boost minority homeownership.

To help move toward this goal, the President proposed a "Renewing the Dream" single-family affordable housing tax credit to encourage the production of single-family homes for sale in neighborhoods where affordable housing is scarce. The proposal is included in the Administration's Fiscal Year 2003 budget.

Modeled after the successful Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which has mobilized private investment in more than a million rental apartments since 1987, the program would provide investors with a credit of up to 50 percent of the cost of constructing a new home or rehabilitating an existing property.

Focusing on homeownership during his weekly radio address to the nation on June 15, Bush said, "Over the next five years, this (housing credit) will provide developers nearly $2.4 billion in tax credits for building affordable single-family housing in distressed areas. These credits will make 200,000 new homes available over its first five years to low-income purchasers."

"The Renewing the Dream initiative, coming in the heart of National Homeownership Month, will not only increase the supply of badly needed affordable housing, but is also good public policy," said Garczynski. "As the President said, 'a home is a foundation for families and a source of stability for communities. It serves as the foundation of many Americans' financial security'." Illustrating the important role that housing plays in local and state economies, Garczynski observed that building 100 single-family homes generates:

• $11.6 million in new income to local businesses and workers in the first year of construction, and $2.8 million every year thereafter.
• 250 jobs in the local community during the first year of construction, and 65 jobs every year thereafter.
• $1.4 million in additional local taxes and fees in the first year of construction and nearly $500,000 every year thereafter, for a total of $5.9 million over 10 years.

"By creating new jobs and increasing housing opportunities for low- to moderate-income home buyers, the homeownership tax credit is a powerful tool to help accomplish the goal laid out by the President today to help more minority households achieve the American dream of owning their own home," said Garczynski.

Legislation similar to the Administration's homeownership tax plan is expected to be introduced shortly in both chambers of Congress.