FHA’s $16.3B deficit raises specter of taxpayer bailout

Housing trends image via Shutterstock.

A fund used to support the Federal Housing Administration’s single-family mortgage and reverse mortgage insurance programs ended fiscal year 2012 with a $16.3 billion deficit, according to an annual report submitted to Congress today.

The shortfall raises the specter that the agency will require a taxpayer bailout next year for the first time in its 78-year history.