U.S. HOMEOWNERSHIP RATE HITS 65.7% --
HIGHEST LEVEL IN 17 YEARS AS NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS
OWNING HOMES REACHES RECORD 67.1 MILLION

Cuomo said 67.1 million American households now own their homes -- the highest number in U.S. history and an increase of 5.3 million since President Clinton took office in 1993.

Cuomo, in Boston for a White House Conference on Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, said the homeownership rate rose by 0.3 percentage point in the second quarter of this year - - creating 597,000 additional homeowners during the period, according to new statistics compiled by the Census Bureau.

"By increasing employment and household income and by holding down interest rates, President Clinton's economic policies have served as a powerful engine to drive up the homeownership rate," Cuomo said. "Millions of American families have been given the opportunity to improve their lives by becoming homeowners."

Cuomo said the National Partners in Homeownership -- a coalition of 63 national groups representing the housing industry, lenders, non-profit groups and all sectors of government -- has also played a key role in increasing the homeownership rate. The Department of Housing and Urban Development created the Partnership at President Clinton's direction in 1995, as part of the President's National Homeownership Strategy. HUD also helped create 123 local partnerships modeled after the National Partnership in communities around the country.

The new increase in the homeownership rate puts the nation on track to reaching President Clinton's goal of an all-time high homeownership rate of 67.5 percent by the end of the year 2000, Cuomo said. The increase would be achieved by boosting the number of homeowners by 8 million from the beginning of 1995. The number of homeowners has increased by 3.1 million since 1995.

The new quarterly homeownership rate of 65.7 percent nearly equals the previous record of 65.8 percent set in the third quarter of 1980. The new rate is the second-highest quarterly rate since quarterly statistics were first tabulated in 1965.

"We are making a special effort to reduce the gap in homeownership between whites and minorities, between households headed by women and other households, and between our suburbs and our cities," Cuomo said. "For far too many hard-working American families, homeownership remains an unfulfilled dream."

The homeownership rate for minorities edged up by 0.4 percentage point during the quarter to 45.7 percent. Female- headed households increased their homeownership rate by 0.8 percentage point to 51.3 percent. Married couples under age 35 increased their homeownership rate by 0.5 percentage point to 58.6 percent.

Among whites, the homeownership rate rose 0.5 percentage point to 72.1 percent.

The central city homeownership rate rose slightly by 0.1 percentage point to 49.9 percent. The suburban homeownership rate rose by 0.5 percentage point to 72.6 percent.

Here's how the homeownership rate changed by region during the second quarter of this year: Northeast, up 0.8 percentage point to 62.4 percent; South, up 0.3 percentage point to 68.1 percent; West, up 0.9 percentage point to 59.9 percent; Midwest, down by 0.3 percentage point to 70.3 percent.