r/Mortgage • u/ermahlerd • 22h ago
Mortgage News Trump signed a new Executive Order aimed at lowering housing and mortgage costs
A few things in it caught my attention as a loan officer:
- Making it easier to remove PMI once borrowers have enough equity
- Reducing title/closing costs on eligible refinances
- Lowering borrowing costs on certain VA and USDA direct loans
- Expanding and streamlining manufactured housing
My take: none of these are going to fix housing affordability on their own, but that doesn't mean they aren't worthwhile.
The biggest issue for most buyers is still the monthly payment, and mortgage rates are largely driven by the bond/MBS market. You can't simply sign an order and suddenly give everyone dramatically lower conventional mortgage rates.
But PMI, title costs, closing costs and other fees are real money too.
If you can eliminate PMI sooner, make refinancing cheaper when rates eventually come down, reduce some government loan costs and make it easier to add housing supply, those smaller changes can add up.
A lot of this still has to actually be implemented so we'll have to see what the final rules look like and how much borrowers really save.
Which of these do you think could have the biggest real-world impact? Or is the effect going to be pretty marginal until rates/home prices come down?