【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 oreclosures are down by nearly twothirds. Millions offamilies have been able to e up for air theyamp。39。re no longer underwater on their mortgages. (Applause.)
　　And just like the crisis hit Phoenix very hard, thanks to some great leadership here locally,Phoenix has also led one of the biggest ebacks in the country. (Applause.) So you should beproud of what youamp。39。ve done here. Home prices in Phoenix have risen by nearly 20 percent overthe last year. New home sales are up by more than 25 percent.
　　This morning, right before I came here, I visited Erickson Construction (applause.) Weamp。39。vegot some Erickson folks here. And they were explaining how right when the bubble hit,Erickson shrank to less than a hundred workers. Today theyamp。39。re employing 580 people andtheyamp。39。re hiring even more people (applause) because the housing market is bouncing back.
　　So thatamp。39。s one of the things about housing. Itamp。39。s not just important for the person who owns thehouse。 our economy is so impacted by everything that happens in housing. Consumers feelbetter when their home values are in a better place, so theyamp。39。re more willing to spend. A lot ofpeople who want to start a business, their savings may be locked up in their workers, contractors, suppliers, carpet makers, all these folks are impacted by thehousing industry.
　　So weamp。39。ve made progress, and thatamp。39。s helped to move the economy forward. But weamp。39。ve got tobuild on this progress. Weamp。39。re not where we need to be yet. Weamp。39。ve got to give more hardworkingAmericans the chance to buy their first home. (Applause.) We have to help more responsiblehomeowners refinance their mortgages, because a lot of them still have a spread between therates theyamp。39。re paying right now on their mortgage and what they could be getting if they wereable to refinance.
　　And weamp。39。ve got to turn the page on this kind of bubbleandbust mentality that helped tocreate this mess in the first place. (Applause.) We got to build a housing system that isdurable and fair and rewards responsibility for generations to e. Thatamp。39。s what weamp。39。ve got todo. (Applause.)
　　So Iamp。39。ve already put forward a bunch of ideas that will help acplish that. And, look, the factof the matter is Congress hasnamp。39。t enacted all of them, so Iamp。39。d like you to encourage members ofCongress to take some of these actions. (Applause.)
　　But like the other actions that weamp。39。ve taken, these will not help the neighbors down the streetwho bought a house that they couldnamp。39。t afford, and then walked away from it and left aforeclosed home behind. We donamp。39。t want to help speculators who bought multiple homes just tomake a quick buck.
　　What we want to do is put forward ideas that will help millions of responsible, middleclasshomeowners who still need relief. And we want to help hardworking Americans who dream ofowning their own home fair and square, have a down payment, are willing to make thosepayments, understand that owning a home requires responsibility. And there are someimmediate actions we could take right now that would help on that front, that would make adifference. So let me just list a couple of them.
　　Number one: Congress should pass a good, bipartisan idea to allow every homeowner thechance to save thousands of dollars a year by refinancing their mortgage at todayamp。39。s rates. (Applause.) We need to get that done. Weamp。39。ve been talking about it for a year and a half, twoyears, three years. Thereamp。39。s no reason not to do it. (Applause.)
　　Step number two: Now that weamp。39。ve made it harder for reckless buyers to buy homes that theycanamp。39。t afford, letamp。39。s make it a little bit easier for qualified buyers to buy the homes that they canafford. (Applause.) So Shaun Donovan has been working with the finance industry to make sureweamp。39。re simplifying overlapping regulations。 weamp。39。re cutting red tape for responsible families whowant to get a mortgage but keep getting rejected by the banks. We need to give wellqualified Americans who lost their jobs during the crisis a fair chance to get a loan if theyamp。39。veworked hard to repair their credit.
　　And step three is something that you donamp。39。t always hear about when it es to the housingmarket, and that is fixing our broken immigration system. It would actually help our housingmarket. (Applause.)
　　Itamp。39。s pretty simple: When more people buy homes and play by the rules, home values go up foreverybody. And according to one recent study, the average homeowner has already seen thevalue of their home boosted by thousands of dollars just because of immigration. And the goodnews is, with the help of your Senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, the Senate has alreadypassed a bipartisan immigration bill. Itamp。39。s got the support of CEOs and labor and lawenforcement. (Applause.) This could help homeownership here.
　　So I want you to encourage Republicans in the House of Representatives to stop draggingtheir feet. Letamp。39。s go ahead and get this done.
　　Step number four: We should addr