For our state as a whole, affordable housing is critical for building our economy. Fundamentally speaking, growing Nebraska's economy rests in part on our ability to encourage growth of current businesses, the development of new ones, or the relocation to our state of outside investment. In past years, Nebraska has filled new jobs from its own population, driving labor force participation rates to very high levels and creating a very tight labor market. In fact, Nebraska's annual average unemployment rate has been the lowest or the second lowest in the nation over the last nine years. While its certainly good to have our population employed, a lack of workers makes anything we try to accomplish in terms of business and industry expansion a challenge, and we must work very hard to provide incentives that will draw workers to our state and keep those already here.
Affordable housing is just that kind of incentive.
If we can make it easier to own a home in Nebraska, there is a greater chance that people will look to Nebraska as the place they want to invest in a business opportunity or raise a family. Governor Dave Maurstad so succinctly observed at last week s announcement of the HouseNebraska expansion, houses are where jobs go at night. Since 1996, Nebraska's homeownership rate has risen from a little more than 67 percent to over 70 percent today. This is a strong indication that the efforts of many public and private organizations such as the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, the Fannie Mae Foundation, and local growth and development efforts in communities across the state are moving us in the right direction. We must continue to work, however, and the expansion of the HouseNebraska program is a terrific sign of that taking place.