Washington Quietly Scrapped a Plan to Save Home Buyers Thousands of Dollars

WASHINGTON—The Biden administration pushed to save homeowners thousands of dollars in closing costs on certain mortgages, part of a broad effort to slash fees and save Americans money. Objections from an obscure industry and from lawmakers helped kill the plan.

Government-controlled mortgage giant Fannie Mae was preparing this summer to finalize a program to test out eliminating one of the biggest fixed costs associated with closing on a mortgage: title insurance.