For those who were able to buy a home, whether it s an existing home or a new home, they were able to realize a dream that so many of them have had. And that was able to help us drive the homeownership rate in this country to its highest level ever. For those refinancing their homes, they were able to dramatically reduce their costs and free up funds that they could use for other purposes. So rather than housing becoming a more and more expensive item in their family budget, because of record low interest rates, housing costs are becoming a smaller percentage of families budgets, and homeownership has become more and more accessible to more and more Americans. We ve seen progress across the board.
More progress is needed.
If we re to move the homeownership rate up higher, we can t simply look at the families who have traditionally found their way into homeownership. We have to expand to look at the full breadth of Americans. Tremendous opportunity for all of us to move up the homeownership rate among Black and Hispanic households. And we ve seen that their attitudes toward homeownership, their desire for homeownership, has been soaring in the last several years. They see less discrimination in the financing process.