Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

US Mint in Philadelphia presses final pennies as the 1-cent coin gets canceled

Summary

  • halts production to save $56 million.
  • Final pennies struck in Philadelphia after 230 years.
  • ordered phase-out amid rising production costs.
  • Pennies remain legal tender but will no longer be made.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The U.S. Mint on Wednesday ended production of the penny, a change made to save money and because the 1-cent coin that could once buy a snack or a piece of candy had become increasingly irrelevant.

The last pennies were struck at the mint in Philadelphia, where the country’s smallest denomination coins have been produced since 1793, a year after Congress passed the Coinage Act. Officials said the final few pennies would be auctioned off.

“God bless America, and we’re going to save the taxpayers $56 million,” U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said just before hitting a button to strike the final penny.

Pennies remain legal tender, but new ones will no longer be made.

The last coin to be discontinued was the half-cent in 1857, Beach said.

President ordered the penny’s demise as costs climbed to nearly 4 cents per penny and the 1-cent valuation became somewhat obsolete. Billions of pennies remain in circulation, but they are rarely essential for financial transactions in the 21st century .

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote in an online post in February. “This is so wasteful!”

Still, many people have a nostalgia for them, seeing them as lucky or fun to collect. And some retailers voiced concerns in recent weeks as supplies ran low and the end of production drew near. They said the phase-out was abrupt and came with no government guidance on how to handle transactions.

Some rounded prices down to avoid shortchanging shoppers. Others pleaded with customers to bring exact change. The more creative among them gave out prizes, such as a free drink, in exchange for a pile of pennies.

“We have been advocating abolition of the penny for 30 years. But this is not the way we wanted it to go,” Jeff Lenard of the National Association of Convenience Stores said last month.

Some banks, meanwhile, began rationing supplies, a somewhat paradoxical result of the effort to address what many see as a glut of the coins. Over the last century, about half of the coins made at mints in Philadelphia and Denver have been pennies.

But they still have a better production cost-to-value ratio than the nickel, which costs nearly 14 cents to make. The diminutive dime, by comparison, costs less than 6 cents to produce, and the quarter nearly 15 cents.

Back in 1793, a penny could get you a biscuit, a candle or a piece of candy. These days, many sit in drawers or glass jars and are basically cast aside or collected.

No matter their face value, collectors and historians consider them an important historical record that can be traced back for more than 200 years. Frank Holt, an emeritus professor at the University of Houston who has studied the history of coins, laments the loss.

“We put mottos on them and self-identifiers, and we decide — in the case of the United States — which dead persons are most important to us and should be commemorated,” he said. “They reflect our politics, our religion, our art, our sense of ourselves, our ideals, our aspirations.”

Brown Edwards acquires Virginia Beach-based accounting firm

Roanoke-based accounting firm announced last week that it has acquired -based , a move that will enhance its presence in the region.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. DesRoches is a firm that provides specialized accounting and tax services to condominium and homeowners associations throughout the region. Mark DesRoches founded the firm in 1988, and his brother, Mark, joined in 1993.

The adds more than 25 DesRoches professionals to Brown Edwards’ team, increasing the firm’s experts in the Hampton Roads region to over 50, as the DesRoches employees will remain in Virginia Beach.

“We’re excited to welcome the talented professionals from DesRoches & Co. to strengthen our presence in Virginia Beach and neighboring cities,” Brown Edwards CEO Laura Sprouse said in a statement.

The acquisition will also result in a significant expansion of Brown Edwards’ homeowners association services and condominium practice, the company said.

It was not made clear what roles Mark and David DesRoches will play in the combined company, and Brown Edwards and DesRoches did not immediately return requests for comment. However, in a statement, Mark DesRoches said, “We’re proud to combine our industry knowledge, diverse experience and talented staff with Brown Edwards. This union allows us to build on our legacy while offering even greater services and value to our clients.”

Meanwhile, David DesRoches said in a statement that partnering with Brown Edwards “marks an exciting new chapter for our team and our clients. This acquisition allows us to scale our impact, deepen our expertise and continue delivering the personalized service we’ve built our reputation on — now with even greater resources behind us.”

Brown Edwards reported approximately $88 million in fiscal 2024 revenue and has more than 450 employees. In 2024, the firm ranked No. 69 in Inside Public Accounting’s Top 500 CPA firms ranking, which is based on net revenue. Forbes named it to the 2023 America’s Best Tax and list.

With their government contracts in limbo, small businesses await a historic shutdown’s end

Summary

  • Federal shutdown delayed payments and canceled small business contracts.
  • faced problems and possible .
  • Some firms may shift focus to private-sector projects.
  • Policy discussions at small business summit overshadowed by shutdown.

NEW YORK (AP) — The end of the longest U.S. in history would be a relief for small businesses that depend on or funding. For seven weeks, they’ve been reducing spending, weighing layoffs and looking for stable work while trying to reach shuttered government offices, according to several contractors.

House lawmakers are returning to on Wednesday to vote on compromise legislation that would fund the government through Jan. 30. A majority of Democrats are expected to vote against the bill, which is likely to win approval in the Republican-led chamber.

Small business owners with government contracts say the shutdown has caused payment delays and the cancellation of some projects, and they will be working to make up for lost time and money, if the government reopens.

Uncertainty on projects

Jackson Dalton, owner of Black Box Safety, a maker of personal protective equipment, was awarded a $1.9 million federal contract for flashlights the day before the shutdown started on Oct. 1.

The contract, which would account for 6% of his annual revenue, required the company in El Cajon, California, to spend $1 million at the outset. Dalton said he was unable to because the contracting office did not return his emails or phone calls.

“It’s had a major impact on our cash flow, on our operations,” he said. “Our suppliers are freaking out because they’ve been anticipating this award for like a year. And so they’re trying to spin up and order raw materials to build the goods needed for this contract.”

The only government communication Dalton said he’s received during the shutdown was an emailed stop work order. The contact called for the work to be performed in 120 days.

Considering non-government projects

Eric Veal is owner and president of Interactive Knowledge in Charlotte, North Carolina, which creates digital interactive experiences for museums, educational organizations and cultural spaces with a staff of eight. About 60% of his work this year has come from contracts with the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian is partly funded by the and partly funded by private donors and other sources.

“Federal employees are not able to work at all, and invoices and projects are at a complete halt,” Veal said. Since the Institution isn’t completely funded by the government, some staff was still working during the shutdown, but it’s “just difficult to complete the work without a full staff.”

He cut down on expenses and was considering laying off some employees if the shutdown stretches past mid-November.

“Our cash flow is affected, and so we are having to make small-level changes in terms of expenditures,” he said. “What we have not had to do yet is consider any type of staffing changes or, you know, major changes, but we, we’ve got, we’ve a date on the calendar that we will start to consider doing those things. And that’s really Nov. 15th.”

The shutdown has made him think about focusing more on work in the private sector.

“We rely on these contracts for the bulk of our work,” Deal said. “So the shutdown is making us second-guess that decision, in terms of really hitching our wagon as heavily as we had to Smithsonian. … We are considering really lessening our reliance as a company on federal contracts.”

A distraction from policy issues

The shutdown has made it harder for small businesses to focus on other policy issues they advocate for in Congress. About 2,000 small business owners attending a summit on Oct. 29-30 summit in Washington, D.C., organized by Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, met elected officials, policymakers and other speakers to discuss issues like , accessing capital and employee retention.

Participant Joe Gelardi, whose company in , Virginia, provides operational support, management and technology services to defense agencies and original equipment manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and , said the shutdown overshadowed what the businesses were trying to accomplish.

“All of us planned for many months to come here (Washington) because we’re trying to help be proactive advocates for the small business community, to help work with legislators in the House and the Senate, to craft policy that will help to make more firm conditions for growth for small businesses across all industries,” Gelardi, president and CEO of Vectrona, said. Instead, the conference ended up “being overshadowed by the fact that this shutdown is in place.”

Meanwhile, the shutdown has impacted his business, which provides technology and training for members of the military to operate complex equipment, he said. The government not operating has caused delays in processing new contracts, bids and proposals, and creates “a lot of uncertainty,” he said. Gelardi said he hasn’t been paid for some contracts, but his team has kept working.

“That is just one example of what’s happening all over the defense space. Companies are being asked to carry the load, and we do it in most cases because we don’t want to let our customer down, we don’t want to harm the relationship, we want them to be able to trust us,” he said. “But it’s really unfortunate that the federal government is transferring the burden of that and asking us to be the ones to carry that cost and find a way to fund the work and manage.”

Contracts canceled

Karen Jenkins, president, CEO and founder of management consulting firm KRJ Consulting, said the shutdown has affected her business based in Columbia, South Carolina, as much as the COVID-19 pandemic did. A contract she won last year that was supposed to have a renewable option this year was canceled, she said.

“There were other contracts that we were tracking that we were going to pursue this year and had a high probability of winning because we probably had the best past performance and rate and things of that nature, but they were pulled,” Jenkins said. “Hopefully and prayerfully, when the government does reopen and with all the furloughs, that they’re going to need some additional capacity. And we are just trying to hold on for dear life to see if we can maintain so that we can be that resource for the government when it reopens.”

BigBear.ai to acquire Warren County-based AI company for $250M

SUMMARY:

  • BigBear. to acquire Ask Sage for $250 million, closing late 2025 or early 2026
  • Ask Sage serves more than 100,000 users in government and defense sectors
  • Nicolas Chaillan, Ask Sage founder, to join as chief technology officer

government tech contractor BigBear.ai announced this week that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Ask Sage, a fast-growing, secure generative platform tailored for defense and national security, for $250 million.

BigBear.ai made the announcement as part of an earnings report released Monday. The company expects the to close in the late fourth quarter of this year or early in the first quarter of 2026.

Headquartered in , Ask Sage’s AI capabilities are specifically designed for defense and national security agencies, as well as other highly regulated sectors. According to BigBear.ai CEO Kevin McAleenan, Ask Sage supports more than 100,000 users on 16,000 government teams across hundreds of commercial companies.

“By integrating Ask Sage with BigBear.ai, we are creating what the market has been asking for: a secure, integrated AI platform that connects software, data and mission services in one place,” McAleenan said in a statement. “Despite delays resulting from the , we believe the potential for new business in the field of border security and defense remains strong, and we expect to see those opportunities, including accelerated spending resulting from the One Big Beautiful Bill, to materialize into contracts next year.”

In the call, McAleenan stated that the acquisition of Ask Sage provides BigBear.ai with a proven, secure and model-agnostic generative AI platform, meaning the platform can work with various AI models, rather than being tied to a single vendor.

McAleenan also revealed during the earnings call that, as part of the merger, Ask Sage founder and CEO Nicolas Chaillan will join BigBear.ai as its chief technology officer.

In the role, Chaillan will focus on enhancing BigBear.ai’s broader portfolio and increasing the efficiency and velocity of its product development and innovation.

“Nick is one of the most respected voices in secure mission-grade AI, having served as the former Chief Software Officer for both the U.S. Air Force and Space Force and founded multiple companies over the past 25 years,” McAleenan said during the call. “He has proven that he can build technology the Pentagon actually uses rapidly and iteratively to support critical missions.”

BigBear.ai did not discuss how many additional employees it would add from the merger, and the company didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

Headquartered in McLean, BigBear.ai is a federal contractor that provides artificial intelligence technology and services for defense, national security and critical infrastructure. The company generated $158.2 million in revenue in 2024, an increase from $155.2 million in 2023.

In its third-quarter report, the company disclosed that year-over-year revenue decreased 20% to $33.1 million, compared to $41.5 million for the third quarter of 2024, primarily due to lower volume on certain Army programs. However, this year’s third-quarter net income was $2.5 million, compared to a net loss of $15.1 million for the third quarter of 2024. The company projects it will earn revenue between $125 million and $140 million for the whole year.

Fed may soon start buying bonds to manage market liquidity, Williams says

Summary

  • New York Fed President John Williams said the central bank is nearing the point where it will restart .
  • Williams stressed the move would be a technical step to manage liquidity, not a change in .
  • The Fed plans to halt runoff in December after ending .
  • The balance sheet has fallen from a $9 trillion peak in 2022 to about $6.6 trillion.
  • Williams said banks should freely use the Fed’s to manage cash needs.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -New York President John Williams reiterated on Wednesday the time is getting closer when the U.S. central bank will have to restart bond purchases as part of a technical effort to maintain control over short-term .

Williams, in the text of a speech to be delivered to a conference at his regional Fed bank, noted that when these purchases happen they have no implications for monetary policy. He did not comment on the outlook for short-term interest rates in his prepared remarks.

Instead, the New York Fed chief tackled the implications of the central bank’s decision late last month to stop the drawdown of its balance sheet at the start of December. Williams said the Fed, by way of “inexact science,” is looking for the level of reserves it considers to be “ample,” which allows for firm control of the central bank’s interest rate targets as well as normal money market trading conditions.

“The next step in our balance sheet strategy will be to assess when the level of reserves has reached ample,” Williams said. “It will then be time to begin the process of gradual purchases of assets that will maintain an ample level of reserves as the Fed’s other liabilities grow and underlying demand for reserves increases over time.”

Williams’ comment on the Fed’s balance sheet followed a choppy period for short-term funding markets around the time of the October 28-29 policy meeting.

The Fed cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to the 3.75%-4.00% range at that meeting to help bolster a weakening job market even as remains stubbornly above the 2% target.

The central bank also announced plans to stop shrinking the size of its balance sheet at the start of December, ending what had been called quantitative tightening, or QT, due to rising volatility in .

QT had been allowing Treasury and mortgage bonds owned by the Fed to run off and not be replaced, in a bid to remove the sea of liquidity that was added during the COVID-19 pandemic. That effort took the Fed’s balance sheet from its overall $9 trillion peak in 2022 to the current overall level of about $6.6 trillion.

USE OF STANDING REPO FACILITY ENCOURAGED IF NEEDED

In a speech last week, Williams flagged the looming need to soon commence gradual outright purchases of bonds to maintain a balance between market liquidity and a growing .

Williams also said in his prepared remarks on Wednesday that a new tool called the Standing Repo Facility, or SRF, which provides fast cash to eligible banks, has been working well as a source of liquidity for those who need it, and he encouraged banks to tap it without worrying that borrowing from the Fed signals a problem.

The SRF’s “effectiveness relies on market participants availing themselves of the SRF based on market conditions, free of worries about stigma or other impediments,” Williams said, adding “I fully expect that the SRF will continue to be actively used in this way.”

 

(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Paul Simao)

 

Atlanta Fed’s Raphael Bostic to retire in February

Summary

  • President , 59, will retire at the end of his term in February.
  • His exit opens a new seat on the Fed’s rate-setting committee as pushes for more control.
  • Bostic, the first Black and openly gay regional Fed president, has warned remains high.
  • The Atlanta Fed’s board will choose his replacement, subject to Fed board approval.
  • Trump has also sought to oust Fed Governor as he aims to reshape the central bank.

(AP) — Raphael Bostic, president of the Bank of Atlanta, will retire at the end of his current term in February, opening up a new seat on the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee at a time that President Donald Trump is seeking to exert more control over the central bank.

As president of one of the Fed’s 12 regional banks, Bostic, 59, serves on the 19-member committee that meets eight times a year to decide whether to change a key short-term interest rate that influences borrowing costs throughout the . Only 12 of the 19 participants vote on rates at each meeting. The regional Fed presidents rotate as voters, and the Atlanta Fed’s president will next vote in 2027.

Bostic’s replacement will be selected by the Atlanta Fed’s board of directors, which are made up of local business and community leaders, not the . The terms of all the regional Fed presidents end in 2026.

Bostic is the first Black and openly gay president of a regional Fed bank in the Fed’s 112-year history. He has recently expressed concerns that inflation is still too high for the Fed to cut its key rate, and in recent months suggested he supported just one rate cut this year, while the Fed has cut twice.

The Fed’s Washington, D.C.-based board of governors will vote on whether to approve Bostic’s replacement. Trump has sought to gain more control over the Fed’s board, which would potentially give the administration more sway over the approval of the regional Fed presidents. Three of the current seven members of the board were appointed by Trump.

Trump has also sought to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, which would have given him a fourth seat on the board. But Cook has sued to keep her seat and the Supreme Court has allowed her to stay in the job while the issue is fought out in court.

The regional Fed banks were set up specifically to ensure that voices outside Washington and New York would have a say in the central bank’s decisions.

Trump has repeatedly attacked the Fed this year for not cutting as quickly as he would prefer. The Fed reduced its key rate by a quarter-point at its September and October meetings, but Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference last month that another cut in December is not a “foregone conclusion.”

General Dynamics unit wins $1.7B to build Navy vessels

General Dynamics NASSCO, a business unit of -based aerospace and defense contractor , announced Monday it has been awarded $1.7 billion in funding from the for the construction of T-AO 215 and T-AO 216 vessels.

The company states that the ships are part of an up to $6.75 billion multi-ship procurement contract with the Navy to construct up to eight additional John Lewis-class fleet replenishment oilers, designated T-AO 214 through 221.

“The T-AO program holds significant importance to the men and women of NASSCO and is one we take great pride in — it’s the longest running Navy production series in NASSCO history,” Dave Carver, president of , said in a statement. “The timely funding for these two ships will act to stabilize the workforce by sustaining an important backlog and prevent future .”

NASSCO is currently under contract to build 17 of the Navy’s 20-ship program of record. So far, it has delivered four. The work began in 2016, when the Navy awarded NASSCO a contract to design and build the first six ships in the John Lewis-class. General Dynamics stated that the contract was modified in 2022 to include three additional oilers (T-AO 211-213). In 2024, the business unit received the contract to build eight more ships.

The John Lewis class of ships are 742-foot vessels that have a full load displacement of 49,850 tons, capacity to carry 162,000 barrels of oil and significant amounts of dry cargo. Designed to transfer fuel to Navy ships operating at sea, the vessels can travel at speeds of up to 20 knots.

Headquartered in San Diego, General Dynamics NASSCO specializes in the design and construction of Navy and commercial ships. The aerospace and defense contractor bought NASSCO Holdings, the National Steel and Co.’s parent company, in 1998.

A NASSCO spokesperson said T-AO 215 is scheduled to begin construction in mid-2026 and deliver in late 2029. T-AO 216 is scheduled to begin construction in early 2027 and deliver in early 2030.

General Dynamics has approximately 117,000 employees worldwide and reported $47.7 billion in revenue for 2024. It ranked No. 96 on the 2025 Fortune 1000.

New documents reveal scope of Google’s Chesterfield data center campus

A site plan filed this week shows that plans to build three of more than 800,000 square feet next to in .

announced in August that the California tech giant planned to invest an additional $9 billion in Virginia through the end of 2026, with a significant portion going toward the building of a new data center campus in Chesterfield, but he and Google did not reveal many specifics at the time.

The site plan says that Google will build an 855,846-square-foot data center campus on about 307 acres at 2700 Bermuda Hundred Road in multiple phases. There will be three data center buildings, each 285,282 square feet, and 345 parking spaces.

Youngkin said in August that Google’s new investment will focus on cloud and infrastructure, and that it will grow its existing facilities in Loudoun and Prince William counties, as well as enhance education and workforce development programs for Virginians.

According to planning documents, Dallas-based AECOM is the project’s designer, while Herndon-based Bohler Engineering will serve as the civil engineer and project applicant.

The data center campus’s project cost, megawatt capacity and the project timeline are still unknown, and Google, Chesterfield County and Bohler did not immediately return requests for comment.

A Google spokesperson previously said in August that construction on the data center is underway and that data center projects typically take 18 to 24 months to complete.

The governor’s office previously said that once the new Chesterfield County data center is complete, the facility will join the and Prince William campuses as part of Google’s global network of data centers.

Google has still not provided estimates on how many jobs the Chesterfield project would produce or details on plans in Loudoun and Prince William counties.

There’s no timeline on when flight cuts will ease up after the government shutdown ends

Summary

  • have canceled more than 9,000 U.S. flights since -ordered cuts.
  • FAA aims to reduce strain on short-staffed control towers amid shutdown.
  • Another 1,200 flights were canceled Tuesday as reductions expanded.
  • demand slows amid widespread delays and cancellations.

Airlines have canceled more 9,000 flights across the U.S. since the Federal Administration ordered flight cuts late last week, mostly to ease demand on control towers that are short-staffed during the federal .

Although the government appears to be moving to reopen in the coming days, airport disruptions, and economic losses won’t go away all at once.

Here’s how the network is being impacted:

Flights remain disrupted as the shutdown nears an end

Another 1,200 commercial flights were scratched Tuesday as the Federal Aviation Administration bumped up its target for reducing domestic flights at the nation’s busiest airports to 6%, up from an initial 4% cut at those 40 airports. However, the cancellations so far Tuesday have been less than in the past couple of days.

Cancellations are unlikely to ease right away

The FAA hasn’t put a timeline on when it will ease back on the flight limitations. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the cuts won’t go away until safety measurements improve and staffing levels stabilize at facilities.

Flight cuts won’t end until FAA sees safety improve

Duffy has declined to share the specific data that prompted FAA to imposed the flight cuts last week, but he told Fox News on Tuesday that he was seeing reports of loss of separation between aircraft in the air, more runway incursions and airline pilots telling the FAA they were concerned with the responses they were getting from controllers.

Air traffic controller shortages won’t go away either

The nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers isn’t new, but the shutdown exposed just how fragile the system is. Controllers who weren’t being paid have increasingly called off work during the shutdown, citing increased stress and the need to take side jobs to pay bills. Union leaders said this week that the number of controllers who retired or quit during the shutdown was “growing” by the day.

Airlines must readjust after FAA order is lifted

The flight restrictions have upended airline operations in just a matter of days. Many planes were rerouted and aren’t where they’re supposed to be. That could slow the airlines’ return to business as usual even after the FAA lifts the cuts, said Mike Taylor, an analyst with J.D. Power.

Major airports bear the brunt of flight cuts

Hub airports in Denver, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and the New York area have seen the bulk of the cancellations. They’ve also been plagued by long delays caused by staffing shortages in regional air traffic control centers and towers.

posts a demand to get back to work

The head of the air traffic controllers union emphasized this week that the controllers were not walking off the job as part of an organized protest and were committed to their work. However President  on Monday blasted those who’ve taken time off during the shutdown, posting on social media “get back to work, NOW!!!” He also called for docking pay for those who didn’t stay on the job, and a $10,000 bonus for those who kept working.

Holiday travel outlook darkens amid persistent disruptions

The pace of airline ticket sales for Thanksgiving travel has slowed as more travelers reconsider whether to fly amid all the delays and cancellations. Aviation analytics firm Cirium said ticket sales during the busy travel season at the end of November are still expected to be up over last year, but only slightly.

Airlines face mounting losses

Canceled flights and mounting delays are adding to big losses for the airlines. The lost revenue is likely to add up to “hundreds of millions of dollars a day,” said Greg Raiff, CEO of the Elevate Aviation Group. He expects the toll to show up when the airlines start issuing earnings warnings for the fourth quarter.

Millions of people were affected

An estimated 5.2 million passengers have been affected by staffing-related delays or cancellations since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, according to Airlines for America, an industry trade group. However, it said cancellations really didn’t become a significant issue until the FAA ordered the flight cuts last week.

Trump says 50-year mortgages would be no ‘big deal’

Summary

  • says 50-year mortgages “might help a little bit” for affordability.
  • Critics warn longer loans increase interest and delay equity.
  • FHFA exploring long-term and portable mortgage options.
  • U.S. households face rising costs despite lower mortgage rates.

(Reuters) -U.S. President downplayed efforts to offer a as a way to make owning a house more affordable than with typical 30-year loans, even as homeowners would pay far more in interest and take longer to build equity.

“All it means is you pay less per month. You pay it over a longer period of time. It’s not like a big factor. It might help a little bit,” Trump told Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” program on Monday night, blaming his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden and the ‘s interest rate policies for home affordability concerns.

Some conservative lawmakers and influencers as well as economists have panned the idea, noting that it would take people longer to actually own their homes under such loans.

Over the weekend on X, Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene reacted to the idea, writing “In debt forever, in debt for life!” while right-wing activist Mike Cernovich wrote: “Lifetime mortgages.”

IS KEY ISSUE

U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte on Saturday had said FHFA was “working on” a five-decade-long mortgage after Trump, a Republican, posted an image of himself under the heading “50-year Mortgage” on social media.

“A complete game-changer,” Pulte wrote on X.

“We are also working on ways to give relief in the 5 year mortgage, the 10 year mortgage, and the 15 year mortgage,” he wrote separately on Sunday, with no further details. “At Fannie and Freddie, we are evaluating how to do assumable or portable mortgages, in a safe and sound manner,” Pulte added, referring to the government-sponsored mortgage enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Representatives for FHFA did not respond to requests for comment seeking more details on the plan.

“The White House and the entire Trump administration are appreciative of Mr. Pulte’s efforts, and everyone is working together to implement the president’s policies,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said.

U.S. households are grappling with cost-of-living increases ranging from housing and groceries to fuel and education even as has grown at a slower rate. Prices took center stage in last week’s state and local elections that saw Democrats sweep key races even as Trump has doubled down on his economic program.

“I don’t know that they are saying that. I think polls are fake. We have the greatest we’ve ever had,” Trump told Fox News.

Affordability could remain a challenge for many prospective buyers as home prices continue to rise.

While home sales rose in September, pending sales remained unexpectedly flat despite lower mortgage rates. Mortgage rates declined after the Federal Reserve resumed cutting last month, but the dip has been somewhat overshadowed by growing anxiety over the softening labor market.

Trump has urged the Fed to make more drastic rate cuts, with Secretary blaming current rates for what he said may already be a recession in the housing sector.

The central bank voted last month in favor of lowering its benchmark interest rate to the 3.75%-4.00% range.

The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is at a one-year low of 6.19% after surging to 7.04% in January, Freddie Mac data showed last month.

“It’s not clear how much this could lower the monthly payment because we don’t know what the interest rate would look like compared to a 30 year mortgage,” Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, said on X on Monday. “A more effective, long-term solution is to fix the supply side.”

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Paul Simao)