In one of the most startling housing-related efforts to "get the government off our backs," the Reagan Administration is considering selling the federal Housing Administration (FHA) to "private bidders" by the end of the decade. Combined with the recent abolition of federal "Minimum Property Standards" (MPS) and other policy changes the administration has in store for the years ahead, the move could effectively end all federal involvement in housing and eliminate the Cabinet-level Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ironically, the FHA—which is credited with making the U.S. a nation of homeowners—is one of the few agencies that does not add to the gargantuan U.S. deficit. It produced a profit of $9.4 billion in 1984, the
