The study finds that if minority families owned homes at the same rate as whites of a similar age and income, there would be an additional 3.5 million homeowners today. A major factor contributing to this gap is that minority and lower income famimlies experience continuing, and in many cases growing, inequalities in obtaining the financing necessary to purchase a home.

In order to work effectively, concurrency requirements and level of service standards mus be an integral part of long term planning and the development review process. To create incentives for density, affordable housing, and mixed use development, staff will propose the application of lower level of service standards for land use types appropriate to certain growth areas.