Trump signs executive order aimed at cutting mortgage and housing costs

President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order directing federal housing agencies to pilot several changes meant to lower the cost of buying and refinancing a home, as mortgage rates remain stuck above 7 percent and home sales sit near record lows heading into next year's midterm elections. The order, titled "Decreasing Housing Costs for the American People," instructs the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Veterans Affairs to loosen rules governing mortgage insurance, refinancing and manufactured housing.

The order's most immediate provision lets the FHFA director direct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to run a pilot that would automatically cancel private mortgage insurance on new loans once automated valuation models show a borrower has built sufficient home equity, cutting a cost that Freddie Mac's weekly rate survey shows can add hundreds of dollars a year to a mortgage payment. A separate section lets the FHFA director expand a title-insurance pilot nationwide for refinances, permitting loan-to-value ratios above the current 80 percent threshold in low-risk cases and waiving some appraisal and documentation requirements, with any savings required to be passed to borrowers.

A task force with a 180-day deadline

The order also creates a Task Force on Manufactured Housing Innovation, to be co-chaired by the HUD secretary and the FHFA director with members from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Veterans Affairs. Within 180 days, the task force must recommend ways to standardize inspections and certifications across agencies, remove duplicative federal rules that slow factory-built construction, and consider tying federal grants to states that streamline local permitting. Separately, the order directs the Agriculture Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs to reduce interest rates on the direct single-family loans each agency makes, subject to existing law and available funding.

The order arrives as affordability pressures have become a political liability heading into the midterms. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, bears responsibility for designing and timing most of the pilots, meaning the practical effect on a given borrower's monthly payment will depend on decisions the agency has not yet made public.

Homebuyers and current mortgage holders are the intended beneficiaries, particularly borrowers close to the equity threshold for private mortgage insurance and veterans or rural borrowers who rely on VA and USDA direct loan programs. Manufactured-housing buyers and builders stand to benefit if the task force's recommendations are adopted, though any changes to inspection standards or permitting requirements would take months to implement given the 180-day review window alone. Mortgage lenders and title insurers, meanwhile, face the prospect of new competition from automated underwriting tools the order directs the enterprises to expand.

The White House has not set a timetable for when the mortgage-insurance or title-insurance pilots will begin accepting loans, and the order does not require their eventual nationwide rollout. The manufactured-housing task force's recommendations are due in April. Housing economists are expected to watch upcoming rate data closely for any sign the measures are easing the affordability squeeze before voters go to the polls, though most of the order's provisions are structured as pilots and study requirements rather than immediate, universal rule changes.