The distracting politics of an insurance premium cut
By Andrea Riquier
Call it housing’s culture war: the tussle between progressives who want homeownership to be available to every American, and conservatives who’d rather government stayed out of the business of helping people who can’t make the biggest purchase of their lives entirely on their own.
That divide, which widened after the mortgage meltdown, eased with the housing market’s recovery. But like the show that never ends, it seems to have reopened over a modest mortgage insurance premium cut.
Days before leaving office, President Obama’s administration cut the cost of taking out a mortgage from the Federal Housing Administration, the government program most often used by lower- and middle-income home buyers. Hours after taking office, President Trump reversed the move.
