Special loans, programs exist for first-time home buyers

Government agencies and private institutions are doing everything they can to help get first-time buyers into homes.

In fact, the Clinton administration has launched a program called the National Home Ownership Strategy: Partners in the American Dream. The initiative is designed to make homeownership more affordable by cutting closing and financing costs and lowering down-payment requirements.

The goal of the program is to generate up to 8 million additional homeowners by 2000, raising the rate of homeownership from 64 percent to an all-time high of 67.5 percent.

More than 65 public and private housing organizations are participating in this effort, under the leadership of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.