We will continue to develop programs to encourage homeownership, emphasizing affordable apartments over single-family homes
Most people consider homeownership one of the foundations of the American dream. In New York City, the homeownership rate is the highest it has been since we began collecting information on homeownership in 1965: currently 33% of New Yorkers own their own homes. While this is an all-time high for the city, we will continue to encourage homeownership so that more New Yorkers can build equity and savings instead of spending money on rent that they will never recoup.

For those who do leap into the home-ownership market, their choices have been constrained by the available supply. Smaller houses, including two-family and three-family homes, have traditionally provided the first opportunity for renters to become homeowners across New York City.

But in a strong real estate market, opportunities for the development of larger, affordable co-operative and condominium buildings have increased-and in some cases been introduced for the first time-into neighborhoods across the city. From Harlem to the South Bronx, new opportunities for the empowerment of homeownership are emerging, without fostering a suburbanized pattern of growth.

In the coming decades, we will continue to build on a range of financing programs and partnerships that encourage homeownership. Today, low-income New York City residents living in overcrowded or substandard housing conditions in Harlem, Queens or Brooklyn can qualify for financing through HPD programs, such as Habitat for Humanity, towards the purchase of a home. For New Yorkers who don't have enough money saved for their down payment and closing costs, HPD's HomeFirst Down Payment Assistance program provides qualified home buyers with up to 6% of the home's purchase price.

In addition, we are continuing to partner with the Nehemiah program, a collaboration between HPD and a consortium of community-based churches in Brooklyn that over the past 15 years has constructed nearly 3,000 single-family homes in East New York and Brownsville. Under the Neighborhood Homes Program, HPD conveys occupied one- to four-family buildings to community-based not-for-profit organizations for rehabilitation and eventual sale to owner-occupants.

Progress (as of 4/22/08):
On December 5, Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Quinn announced the formation of a new non-profit, the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, to mitigate the effects of concentrated foreclosures. An effort of HPD, the City Council, private philanthropy, banks and lenders, and the nonprofit community, the Center expects to provide assistance to approximately 18,000 New Yorkers in its first year. To do so, the Center will fund a major expansion and coordination of counseling and referral services, legal assistance, loan remediation, preventive outreach and education, training, research and advocacy around sub-prime lending and mortgage foreclosures. The Center is the first of its kind in the nation and will establish national best practices for addressing the crisis. In addition, the Administration will continue to create and preserve home ownership units on City-owned land and through partnerships as a part of the Mayor's New Housing Marketplace plan as it did on September 7, when HPD and NYCHA released an RFP for the development of sites in the Bronx to provide affordable rental and home ownership housing.