This month, we celebrate National Homeownership Month. The celebration is meaningful for what it says not only about our ambition in creating more access to the American dream of homeownership, but also for what it means when our ambitions fall short.

President Bush designated June as National Homeownership Month in 2002, with the goal of adding 5.5 million minority homeowners by the end of the decade. Achieving this goal would have a major effect on our nation. Historically, homeownership has been step one in the creation of wealth for Americans, leading to better economic prospects, access to more financial resources, and the ability to pass that wealth on to future generations.

This year, National Homeownership Month is especially poignant. 2008 marks the 40^th anniversary of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. A centerpiece of the Act is the prevention of discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status (families with children), and disability. Over the past six years, opportunities for minorities to become homeowners have flourished. New loan programs meant greater access to financing for more people, which meant access to homes. This represented the best in our quest for fair housing and for the goal of increasing homeownership.

 

As we now know, it also represented the worst. Minorities are expected to make up a disproportionate percentage of the foreclosures sweeping the nation. Entire neighborhoods (and in some cases, entire cities) have lost a generation or more of wealth created through homeownership. In the push to create homeowners on paper, we neglected to provide the underpinnings that would have made them homeowners in fact - i.e., staying a home long enough to put down roots, build equity, and accumulate wealth.

 

Without proper financial education for all Americans, regulation of lenders, and an economic system built on something more stable than consumer spending, the promises of homeownership will not pay off as well as they should. A recent article in the News and Observer noted that customers often did not understand how to prioritize their bills. They faced disconnection of their electricity, believing that the cable bill had to be paid first, since the cable company's grace period was shorter. Local utility companies have started programs to help customers understand how to pay bills in order of importance, explaining to them that if they don't have electricity, they won't have cable, whether they paid the cable bill or not.

As is fitting, the theme of National Homeownership Month 2008 is "Back to Basics". From the HUD website:

"This year's theme - "Back to Basics" - is designed to underscore the importance of having strong, common-sense fundamentals as a way to maintain a sustainable housing market. Many of those basics (verification of income, ability to repay) were ignored in the lead-up to the housing bubble. The Department will focus on helping families learn what the federal government is doing to help struggling homeowners; how to protect themselves against predatory lending; to better understand what goes into owning a home; and how to own a home they can afford. "

Couldn't have said it better myself. Let's all live up to our potential and make homeownership the dream we know it can be.