With the economy going strong, ownership becoming more affordable, and discriminatory barriers on the wane, many more minority and immigrant households are buying homes. In fact, minorities now account for nearly 30 percent of the overall growth in homeownership, and in many areas anchor the first-time buyer market. The ongoing homeownership boom, along with the potential impacts of current changes in public assistance programs, are the focus of a new Ford Foundation-sponsored study, "The State of the Nation's Housing: 1997," issued by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

Contrary to dire predictions that the baby bust would devastate the homebuilding industry and lead to a collapse in home prices, the 1990s are turning out to be one of the best decades for housing on record. As Joint Center Executive Director William Apgar explains, "What many forecasters have failed to recognize is the emergence of this important minority homebuying market, as well as the enduring strength of baby-boomer tradeup demand. In the last three years alone, the number of homeowners has increased by 3.4 million and the national homeownership rate has climbed to 65.4 percent - just short of its all-time peak."

"Strong sales of both new and existing homes supports over a million units of single-family production annually," adds Josephine Louie, Joint Center analyst. "Solid demand also is helping to boost home prices across the country, thereby bolstering growth of homeowner equity and net wealth."

"For low-income households unable to buy homes, however, conditions are clearly worsening," continues Apgar. "Rental housing is increasingly home to low-income households - the same population most at risk under the current restructuring of housing assistance programs and the enactment of welfare reform."

With continued cutbacks in federal programs, some owners of subsidized units will be forced to sell their properties or otherwise opt out of programs that provide housing to the lowest income households. "Millions of low-income households rely on public assistance to pay for their housing," says Louie. "What we've discovered is that many landlords - especially those owning only a handful of units - have limited capacity to compensate for the loss of of income they would suffer by continuing to rent to these households." This spells even more losses of affordable housing.

"On the bright side," Apgar counters, "the strong national economy makes this an opportune time to build on the homebuying boom to stabilize the distressed neighborhoods most threatened by public policy changes. At minimum, this will require concerted efforts to preserve and expand the supply of affordable housing."

Additional support for the study was provided by the Fannie Mae Foundation, the Federal Home Loan Banks, Freddie Mac, the Housing Assistance Council, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, the National Association of Home Builders, the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, the National Association of Realtors, the National Council of State Housing Agencies, the National Low Income Housing Coalition/Low Income Housing Information Service, the National Multi Housing Council, and the Policy Advisory Board of the Joint Center.