    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [June 12, 1997]
    [Page 723]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Statement on the Mortgage Insurance Premium Reduction Initiative
    June 12, 1997

        Today, we are making it even easier for thousands of young families
    to buy their first home. I am pleased to announce that the Department of
    Housing and Urban Development is reducing the FHA's up-front mortgage
    insurance premium by 12.5 percent. This reduction, coupled with two
    previous reductions and savings passed on to homebuyers because of
    better Government efficiency, will save families buying a first home a
    total of $1,200. Just last year, FHA premium cuts reduced the
    downpayments for 550,000 families across the country.
        In 1994, I called upon the Department of Housing and Urban
    Development to develop a strategy to boost homeownership to an all-time
    high--to produce 8 million new American homeowners by the year 2000.
    Through our National Homeownership Strategy, more than 2.5 million
    American families have already become homeowners. Today, more Americans
    are homeowners than at any time in history.
        We know homeownership is strengthening families and stabilizing
    neighborhoods. As part of that strategy, I challenged HUD to do what it
    could to remove some of the barriers young families face when buying
    their first home. Too often, front-end closing costs, not monthly
    payments, stand between a hard-working family and a new home. Our goal
    was to cut those up-front costs by $1,000; with today's action, we have
    cut those costs by $1,200.
        I applaud Secretary Cuomo for going the extra mile, surpassing the
    challenge I set in 1994 and providing the extra boost needed to make the
    dream of homeownership a reality for thousands more families.