PRESIDENT BUSH VISITED the Housing and Urban Development headquarters–the first president to do so since LBJ–in June 2002 to announce a housing policy goal: 5.5 million more minority homeowners by the end of the decade. His motivation was the wide disparity between white and minority homeownership. The national homeownership rate stood at a record of 67.7 percent. The rate for whites was about 75 percent; the rate for minority households, less than half. There were obvious explanations for part of the disparity, at least: differences in income, in the age distribution, in the proportion of households consisting of married couples. But Bush wanted to try to close the racial and ethnic gap.

Halfway through that eight-year period, half the goal has been achieved. As of June, there are over 2.7 million more minority homeowners than there were at the time of the HUD speech. Moreover, the racial disparity has been narrowing. The homeownership rate is up by almost three percentage points for minorities, compared to one percentage point for whites, according to the Census Bureau.