[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book I)]
[March 15, 2004]
[Pages 387-392]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in a Discussion on Homeownership in Ardmore, Pennsylvania
March 15, 2004

    The President. Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for coming today. 
You're probably wondering what we're doing here. I'll tell you what 
we're going to do. We're going to talk about one of the most exciting 
things that can happen to a person, and that is the purchase of a home. 
That's what we're here to discuss, homeownership and how best to help 
people buy a home and what is it like to be someone who wonders about 
homeownership and the struggles of trying to figure out all the fine 
print and how to get something done. That's what we're really here to 
talk about.
    But before we do, I want to thank Mary Frances Reilly of the YMCA for her--[applause]. Mary Frances told me 
she was a runner. I told her I used to be a runner. [Laughter] Turns 
out, when you get older it's kind of hard to run a lot, isn't it, Mary 
Frances? But thank you for your hospitality. I'm so grateful you're 
here.
    I want to thank my friend Alphonso Jackson, who is the Acting Secretary of Housing and Urban 
Development. That means he's waiting for Senate confirmation, which I'm 
confident the Senate will do soon. Where are you, Alphonso? There he is. 
Thanks for coming. I'm glad you're here.
    Alphonso and I have set a job: We 
want to close the minority homeownership gap in America; we want more 
people owning their own home; and we want more of our minorities owning 
their own home as well. We think it's in the best interests of the 
country that more people own something. When you own something you call 
your own, you have a vital stake in the future of our Nation. So we've 
set this goal, and we'll talk about some ways how to achieve this goal. 
But Alphonso is the right man for the job. He's run housing authorities 
before. He knows what he's doing. The Senate needs to get him in there 
pretty quick.
    Speaking about Senators, I'm honored that Senator Arlen 
Specter is with me today. Arlen, thank you for 
coming. I consider Arlen Specter an ally and a friend. Oh, he doesn't do 
everything you ask him

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to do all the time, but when you need him, he's there. He's an 
independent voice for the great State of Pennsylvania, and he's doing a 
fine job as a United States Senator. I appreciate you coming.
    Jim Gerlach is with us as well--Jim, thanks 
for coming; I'm proud you're here--as is Congressman Jim 
Greenwood. Jim, thanks for coming. It's 
good to see both of the Congressmen. Thanks for taking your time out.
    I see that Chairman Jim Matthews is 
with us. Chairman, I'm glad you're here. He is the smart brother. 
[Laughter] Well, it's an inside joke. I appreciate other county 
commissioners being here, Commissioner Ellis, and State and local officials, and thank you all for 
coming.
    Before we begin a little talk about the economy and homeownership, I 
do want to make mention of a fellow named Robert Bright. Robert, where are you? There he is. Thank you for coming, 
Robert. You don't know Robert. I didn't know him until I landed at the 
airport. He is a mentor. He is what I call a soldier in the army of 
compassion. You know, a lot of times we talk about the strength of our 
country being our military--and that is part of the strength of the 
country, and we intend to keep the military strong--or the fact that 
we're a wealthy nation, and that's important. But the true strength of 
the country is the heart and souls of our citizens. It's really the true 
strength of America, the fact that there are people who are willing to 
take time out of their life to volunteer, to save a life, or to make 
sure a child has got a better future.
    Robert has been a mentor at Big 
Brothers and Big Sisters. He knows what I know, that you can change our 
country one heart and one soul at a time; that Government is not a 
loving organization, it's an organization of law and justice, but love 
emanates in our hearts. And the reason I've asked Robert to come to 
introduce him is because I encourage anybody who wants to serve their 
country to do--to mentor a child or to be involved with the YMCA or to 
get involved with the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, to make a difference 
by taking time out of your life to help heal a soul that hurts. Robert, 
thanks for the example you've set, and thanks for coming today.
    I hope you can tell that I'm an optimistic fellow, because--and one 
reason why is because I've seen what this country has been through. We 
went through a recession and a stock market decline. We went through an 
attack. We got attacked by a bunch of coldblooded killers, and the 
attack hurt. It hurt our psyche because we thought oceans could protect 
us. It hurt, the fact that we lost a million jobs after September the 
11th, but we're a strong nation, and we're a resilient nation. We began 
to recover.
    And then we discovered another thing that was harmful to economic 
growth and vitality and confidence, and that is we had some people who 
didn't tell the truth that were running corporations in America. We had 
some CEOs that weren't honest with their shareholders and their 
employees. And we passed tough laws that said, ``We're not going to 
tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America.'' You're now beginning 
to see on your TV screens what we're talking about. People are being 
held to account. And that hurt our economy.
    And then, as you know, I made a very difficult decision, but the 
right decision, to secure our country by holding Saddam Hussein to account. But nevertheless, we had the--if you 
remember, we had on our TV screens the phrase ``March to War.'' Any time 
a nation is marching to war, it's not conducive for confident thinking. 
Nobody wants to march to war. It's a negative thought. Now we're 
marching to peace, by the way. We're on our way to--[applause].
    But it was tough times, and yet we're growing. The economy is strong 
and getting stronger. The manufacturing report today was very positive, 
another indication of the economy strengthening. Unemployment is 
dropping here in the State of Pennsylvania. There are still people 
looking for work,

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make no mistake about it, but it's getting better. Interest rates are 
low, which is important if you're a first-time homebuyer. Inflation is 
down, which is important. We're going to keep working on jobs. One thing 
we're not going to do is get ourselves isolated from the world. I will 
fight off economic isolationism, which would be bad for job creation 
here in the State of Pennsylvania.
    But we've overcome a lot, and that's why I'm optimistic. We've 
overcome a lot because we've got people who refuse to be intimidated by 
terrorists. We've overcome a lot because of a tax policy that left 
money--more money in the hands of the people that earned it. And when 
you've got more money in your pocket, you go out and demand an 
additional good or a service. And when somebody demands a good or a 
service, in our economy, somebody produces the good or a service. And 
when somebody makes that good or a service, it means somebody is likely 
to keep a job or find work.
    The tax policies we passed made a lot of sense, and there's more to 
do. The first thing that Congress needs to do is not take that tax 
relief away from the people and not raise the taxes on the people. I 
don't know if you followed this debate that we're having up there in the 
Nation's Capital right now--or down there in the Nation's Capital; I'm 
used to saying up there in the Nation's Capital. If Congress doesn't 
act, the child credit is going to go down, which is raising taxes on the 
people with children. If the Congress doesn't act, the marriage penalty 
is going up. By the way, it doesn't make any sense to penalize marriage 
in the Tax Code. We ought to be encouraging marriage, not penalizing 
marriage in our Tax Code. If the Congress doesn't act, they're going to 
be raising the taxes on people who work, and it makes no sense.
    There's other things we need to do as well. We need to worry about 
the cost of health care. Small businesses need to be able to pool 
their--be able to pool risk with association health care plans, so their 
employees can have more affordable health care. We need to expand health 
savings accounts. We need medical liability reform in Washington, DC. We 
need an energy bill. It's hard to be a manufacturer in the State of 
Pennsylvania if you're worried about where your next energy is coming 
from. And we need a bill.
    There's a lot of things we need to do in Washington to make sure 
that this economy continues to grow and people can find work. And one of 
the things we need to do is to continue with good housing policy, and 
that's what we're here to talk about today. Homeownership in America is 
at the highest rate ever. It's a fantastic statement to say that, isn't 
it? Homeownership is at the highest rate ever. That means there's more 
people ever in our history are able to say, ``I own something. I own my 
own home.''
    I went to Pearl's home, and it was pretty 
special--really special, wasn't it? She said, ``This is my home.'' When 
I walked up the stairs, she didn't say this is anybody else's home but 
her home. She said, ``Would you come into my home, please. Would you 
come in and meet my four children in our home.'' And it was a fantastic 
experience to come to a first-time homeowners's home and visit with her 
family. It made me feel good. It made her feel nervous. She hadn't seen 
that many automobiles on her street. [Laughter]
    But she was great, and it was wonderful to 
see. We're going to talk to Pearl in a minute about how she made the 
decision to buy a home. See, if somebody is listening to this program, I 
want you to listen to Pearl's story. Probably in her mind, she never was 
going to ever own a home until something happened. There are some things 
we can do in Government policy to help people own a home.
    One of the things we can do is to help people with the downpayment. 
A lot of people say, ``I want to own a home,'' and then they get looking 
at the downpayment,

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and they realize they can't even get beyond the downpayment phase. And 
so we passed a good law out of the United States Congress to help people 
with their downpayments. That money will start to be disbursed soon, 
with a program such as Genesis, to help people with the downpayment.
    The other thing we can do--and you're going to hear some stories 
today about how these housing counselors help people get beyond the fear 
of signing a contract full of small print. I mean, if you've never owned 
a home and you're looking at these contracts, it's a little 
intimidating. If you think that the President coming to your house is 
intimidating, wait until you look at one of those contracts. Isn't that 
right? And so we're going to talk about a program that we've instituted 
through HUD that helps with educating people. And Nikki is going to talk to us about that in a second.
    I believe Congress ought to pass tax credits to encourage 
homebuilding, affordable homes in areas that need affordable homes. 
We've set a grand goal. We want to close the minority homeownership gap, 
and there are three practical ways to encourage the construction of a 
home and to help homebuyers buy a home.
    I readily concede there's nothing like low interest rates to 
stimulate homeownership. And so I suggest that people listening out 
there, if you're interested in buying a home, take advantage of the low 
rates. Take advantage of those low rates. Lock in good, low mortgages to 
make your future so bright.
    Nikki Holcroft is with us today. Nikki, 
tell us what you do. Thank you for coming. Nikki is a sweet soul who 
cares deeply about the people she's helping.

[At this point, Nikki Holcroft, housing counselor, Genesis Housing 
Corp., Norristown, PA, made brief remarks.]

    The President. You might have more than one customer out there, you 
know? [Laughter]
    One of the things, as I said, we emphasize is counseling services. 
It sounds like kind of a simple thing, but it's a profound opportunity 
for help. And you'll hear from Pearl. Are you 
about ready? [Laughter]
    Pearl Cerdan. Yes, sir.
    The President. How many kids have you got?
    Ms. Cerdan. I have six, but four of them 
are with me.
    The President. Yes, I met them all. How many cats?
    Ms. Cerdan. One.
    The President. I met it. [Laughter] When did you start thinking 
about buying a home?
    Ms. Cerdan. Well, like Nikki said, I had--
about 3\1/2\ years ago, I had started. I was thinking then, but it was 
only a thought. And then I came back----
    The President. Was it a dream or a thought?
    Ms. Cerdan. Well, at first it was a 
thought, but then it became a dream.
    The President. I got you.
    Ms. Cerdan. Did I say that right? 
[Laughter]
    The President. It's your dream. It's not ours. [Laughter] You're 
doing great.

[Ms. Cerdan, Genesis housing counseling client and first-time homebuyer, 
Ardmore, PA, made further remarks.]

    The President. Now, Judy is the cofounder 
of Genesis. Is that an accurate statement?
    Judith Memberg. Yes, it is.
    The President. She's a social entrepreneur.
    Ms. Memberg. I've never been called that, 
but okay. [Laughter]
    The President. It's a plus.
    Ms. Memberg. Sounds good. [Laughter]
    The President. Why don't you tell us how you got the idea and talk 
about Genesis right quick.

[Ms. Memberg, executive director, Genesis Housing Corp., made brief 
remarks.]

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    The President. Right. It's interesting, this Ardmore project was on 
an abandoned filling station.
    Ms. Memberg. Yes, it was.
    The President. And you got brownfield money.
    Ms. Memberg. Yes, there were some 
environmental problems with gasoline in the soil that had to be cleaned 
up. And there was some funding that made that available, because anytime 
you get into environmental problems, it gets very expensive.
    The President. Right. And so when did you see the house you're going 
to buy?
    Ms. Cerdan. When did I see it?
    The President. Yes, first see it.
    Ms. Cerdan. The first time I'd seen it was, 
I think, like July.
    The President. Really?
    Ms. Cerdan. Yes, sir.
    The President. And you bought it in----
    Ms. Cerdan. December the 16th of 2003.
    The President. Fantastic--homeowner.
    Penny is with us. Penny, you're in the 
process of buying a home. Is that accurate?
    Penny Wolk. That's accurate, Mr. President. 
[Laughter]
    The President. All right, let her go. 
[Laughter] Tell us about yourself, please, ma'am.

[Ms. Wolk, prospective homebuyer, Norristown, PA, made brief remarks.]

    The President. And so where are we in the process? Judy, maybe you can give us a hand here?
    Ms. Memberg. Penny is going to be one of 
the buyers in the second phase of the project, and there's four more 
houses are going to be built, and she should be signing an agreement of 
sale in about 2 weeks.
    The President. Good. Explain what it's like to be somebody who wants 
to buy a home, and you're kind of lost, I guess, in the process, is 
maybe a good way to say it. What does Genesis do? How do they--if 
somebody is listening out there that probably is in your position----
    Ms. Holcroft. What does Genesis do?
    The President. Yes, how do you find out how to----

[Ms. Holcroft made further remarks.]

    The President. You can't live in a home unless you've got somebody 
who is willing to build them. And Scott Cannon 
is a homebuilder. He's the president of Cannon Custom Homes.
    Scott Cannon. Thank you, Mr. President.
    The President. Did you bring your family with you--I can see. 
[Laughter]
    Mr. Cannon. I've got the family here.
    The President. Tell us about your business. Tell us about what it's 
like to be a homebuilder in the Philadelphia area.

[Mr. Cannon made brief remarks.]

    The President. One of the things we were talking about backstage was 
the--about how if there is a local forum, that ought to be good enough 
for the Federal Government, I guess is the country-boy way of 
summarizing what we're talking about. And that's beginning to happen.
    Mr. Cannon. I haven't seen it yet.
    The President. Well, it should be happening. I mean, it's supposed 
to be happening soon, is what I understand. [Laughter]
    Mr. Cannon. To a theater near you. 
[Laughter]
    The President. That's right. How about tort reform? You could use a 
little tort reform, couldn't you?
    Mr. Cannon. Well, we could use tort reform, 
sure--the class-action lawsuits and things like that that we truly do 
fear, of course. But again, that's just a cost that we pass on to Pearl 
and Penny. It's not something that--really you're not coming after me. I 
just have to pay more for insurance, and I pass it on to the homebuyer.
    The President. No, that's exactly right. Are you building any homes 
these days?
    Mr. Cannon. Yes, we're building a few. 
We've had a challenge the last year or so with the weather, but things 
are going good.

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    The President. Well, I might be able to do something with the 
bureaucracy, but--[laughter].
    Mr. Cannon. That would be enough. 
[Laughter] We'll deal with the weather.
    The President. Judy, you got anything 
else you want to share with anybody who might be listening out there 
about buying a home?
    Ms. Memberg. I think the thing that's 
really important is that with housing counseling, anyone can put 
together a plan on how they can become a homebuyer. Some people, it's a 
very short process; some people are very familiar with being homeowners 
or their family has been homeowners. But a lot of people who, if their 
parents aren't homeowners, really don't know where to start. And a good 
housing counseling agency can really guide you through that process.
    The President. Right. And I presume there's a lot of housing 
counseling agencies around the area?
    Ms. Memberg. There are a few. There are 
many in Philadelphia. There are a few in Montgomery County. But there's 
a lot of good counselors out there to find one that matches up with your 
need.
    The President. Good. Well, listen, if somebody's listening, I hope, 
and are interested in buying a home, there's opportunity here in this 
part of the world. You've heard two ladies say that they've been able to 
overcome the fears of homeownership and kind of the mental blocks 
associated with homeownership, because they were able to receive 
counseling. And the counseling is available. We want more people owning 
their home. That's what we want. We want you to feel comfortable about 
coming--thinking about buying your own home so that when somebody knocks 
on your door, you open that door and say, ``Welcome to my home,'' just 
like this good lady did to me today.
    Listen, thank you all for coming. It's been a joy to be here. I want 
to thank you for your stories. May God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 2:57 p.m. in the gymnasium at the Main Line 
YMCA. In his remarks, he referred to Mary Frances Reilly, executive 
director, Main Line YMCA; James R. Matthews, chairman, and Thomas Jay 
Ellis, commissioner, Montgomery County Commission, Montgomery County, 
PA; and former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The Office of the Press 
Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.