Obama Said to Announce Cut in FHA Mortgage Insurance Premiums

``The annual fees the agency charges to guarantee mortgages will be cut by 0.5 percentage points, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the White House hasn't yet made the announcement. The FHA has been increasing premiums since 2011 to offset losses caused by defaults on mortgages it backed after the housing bubble burst. Housing industry participants have said the increases in annual fees, which are now at 1.35 percent of the loan balance, are squeezing first-time homebuyers out of the market. The annual fees were just 0.55 percent in 2011, before the increases.'' -- It's too bad FHA was so irresponsible for so long, necessitating the fee rises on innocent new borrowers in recent years...