I want to thank all of you in private industry who have worked for a year with our national home ownership program. I would also like to thank those of you who have spent a lifetime helping people realize the dream of owning their own homes.
When I came into this office I saw this effort to increase home ownership as part of our larger goal of improving economic opportunity for Americans who are trying to raise families. The fact that home ownship had not increased for several years was a sign of why we needed to get our economy moving.
I think everybody here, no matter how old you are, remembers the first home you bought. Some of you have heard me tell this tale before: I had to buy a home to get married. My wife and I had been going together for several years, and we were both teaching at a university law school. One day she was going away on some trip and I was taking her to the airport. We passed this old house.
She said, "Boy, that's a pretty house." I said, "It really is!" So I took her to the airport, went back and checked on the house. It had one storey, was 1,100 square feet, and it cost $20,500. It wasn't a palace or a castle, but it was still a real beauty -- the little house had a good roof, a ceiling fan, a small garage, and wood floors. I seized the chance and bought the house. I wrote a cheque for the down payment that was needed to buy the house. It was a large quantity of money for me at that time. Then I got a bank to lend me the rest of the money. I remember I had to pay $l74 each month.
And so, three or four days later she came back from her trip and I declared, "You know that house you like so well? I bought that house. Now, don't you think you'll have to marry me so I won't have to live there by myself and be lonely?" I am a living example of the power of home ownership to make families strong and build better futures.
Home ownership is now at its highest level in 15 years. Last year, home ownership increased by more than it had in almost 30 years. I also want to point out that I' m very proud of the fact that home ownership is more broadly based now in America than it has been in a long time. There's been a very rapid increase in the number of black first-time home owners and the number of Hispanic home owners. There has also been a solid increase in the number of single mothers who own their own homes.
So, we are working hard to further the benefits of home ownership. Many of you have helped to achieve those benefits. Sixty-five percent of the American people now own their own homes. Our goal is to go from 3.7 million new home owners now, to 8 million new home owners by the year 2000. This will bring us to over two-thirds of the American people owning homes by the year 2000 - the first time that has ever been achieved in the history of this country. Together, you and I - all of us working together - can achieve this goal. And today, I think we should once again promise ourselves that we will spare no effort to get behind this goal and press forward.
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