It was Bush who instituted the American Dream Down Payment Fund for Minorities, something Republicans do not want you to know about.
Although there was hardly any reporting done on this by the Republican main stream media, it was George Bush who pushed for minority home buying.... not Clinton as they love to distort about and gave Speculators the go ahead to get minorities to buy homes in the hundreds of thousands.
Source: Dateline: 06/18/02
"Calling a home the "foundation for families and a source of stability for communities," President Bush has proposed three new initiatives designed to enhance existing federal home buyer assistance programs by helping African- and Hispanic-Americans buy homes. According to the White House, fewer than half of all African and Hispanic Americans currently own their homes, compared to nearly three-fourths of white Americans. "We must begin to close this homeownership gap by dismantling the barriers that prevent minorities from owning a piece of the American dream," said the President in a nationwide radio address. To close the homeownership gap, President Bush proposed legislation funding the following new initiatives:
American Dream Down Payment Fund
This program would provide money to qualified low-income families to assist in making the down payment on a home. "The single greatest hurdle to first time homeownership is a high down payment requirement that can put a home out of reach," said President Bush. White House analysts estimate that the American Dream Fund will assist some 40,000 low-income families annually in making down payments on homes.
Tax Credits to Create Affordable Housing
This proposed initiative would provide home-builders and developers with nearly $2.4 billion in tax credits for building affordable single-family housing in distressed areas. The tax credits would help make 200,000 new affordable homes available to low-income buyers over the next five years.
Home Buyer Education
To assist home buyers deal with the complexity and difficulty of the purchasing process, this program would provide funds to agencies working to better educated first-time home buyers. Consumers would be advised of their rights and responsibilities as home buyers, and trained to recognize and avoid abusive and unscrupulous lending practices. "Financial education and housing counseling can help protect home buyers against abuses, greatly improve the loan terms they are offered, and help families get through tough times with their homes intact," said President Bush
"Owning a home lies at the heart of the American dream," Bush said. "My approach to broadening home ownership focuses on empowering people to help themselves and to help one another."
http://usgovinfo.about.com/...
And because there were no Regulations to protect said homebuyers who had a balloon interest at the end, well we see what has happened, and they still want to blame the homebuyers instead of the scam perpetrated by lenders who first lowered interest rates to put people into homes then raised their interest rates so they could no longer afford their homes. Someone should go to Jail for this!