Trump's mortgage order trims fees, but 7% rates still set the price

Can you fix a housing affordability crisis by shaving the fine print? That is the bet behind the new executive order, and we think it is a small bet dressed up as a big one.

President Trump signed the order, titled "Decreasing Housing Costs for the American People," on October 22. As CNBC reports, it directs federal agencies to proactively cancel mortgage insurance on eligible future loans and to make a cheaper refinancing program permanent. It also creates a task force on manufactured housing. It landed less than two weeks before the November 3 midterms.

The affordability problem is real. According to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, the monthly payment on a median-priced home with a 30-year fixed mortgage took roughly 33% of the median family's income in 2025, up from 26% in 2022. Freddie Mac put the 30-year rate at 7.32% as of October 23.

The order is a set of instructions, not a change to your loan

Read closely, this is less a policy than a to-do list for the Federal Housing Finance Agency. A mortgage professional's explainer at Von Mortgage notes that the FHFA Director acts "if he determines" it is in the best interests of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the public, and that the order creates no right anyone can enforce. Fannie and Freddie then have to rewrite their guides, and lenders have to update their systems. That author's guess is months.

The mortgage insurance piece is also narrower than the headlines suggest. The pilot would use automated valuation models to cancel insurance once a borrower has enough equity, but it applies to mortgages originated after the pilot launches. If you pay PMI today, you still use the old process. And the order, as that same explainer notes, doesn't mention FHA mortgage insurance.

The savings are real, but small next to the rate

Credit where it is due. The lender's title policy has "always been fairly pricey," in the words of HSH's Keith Gumbinger, and a former FHFA director estimated that consumers could save $500 to $1,500 in closing costs on loans sold under the pilot. Auto-canceling PMI could matter too: a Freddie Mac calculator puts PMI at $351 a month on a $600,000 home with 10% down at 7.3%. Nobody should sneer at that.

But put it next to the main cost. In that same $600,000 example, we'd expect the monthly mortgage payment to dwarf the insurance line, and rates, not fees, drive it. Gumbinger said he doesn't know that the order is "necessarily a game-changer in terms of the cost of housing, which is dictated by home price and mortgage rates at the moment." We agree. Refinance demand was down 59% in mid-October from a year earlier, which probably reflects how few people want to trade a lower rate for a higher one. A $1,500 closing-cost cut does not change that math.

Two more caveats. According to the Von Mortgage explainer, the waivers apply to limited cash-out refinances that reduce the monthly payment, and most refinances today involve borrowers who need cash out, so we think the relief will miss many people who refinance out of necessity. And the title industry has fought the pilot; the American Land Title Association warned that any effort to bring title insurance costs down "must also preserve the essential consumer safeguards." Whether the fraud and risk concerns are overblown is a fair debate, but it means the path isn't clear.

What buyers and owners should do instead of waiting

Our view: the order is a modest tailwind for some borrowers, and the headline savings figures ("thousands and thousands of dollars," in FHFA director Bill Pulte's words) are best treated as a political claim until details arrive. The supply side, building more homes, matters more. A manufactured housing task force is meant to produce recommendations, not construction. The order itself isn't the answer to scarce inventory.

So the practical advice is dull but sound. This isn't personal advice, just a method:

• Run the full monthly cost. Price, rate, PMI and taxes together, at today's rate rather than a hoped-for one.
• Don't delay a purchase or refinance that already pencils out for a program that doesn't exist yet and may arrive in a narrower form.
• If you already pay PMI, check whether you can remove it under current rules. Fannie Mae says borrowers can generally ask once the balance reaches 80% of the original value.
• Treat closing-cost savings as a bonus, not a reason to refinance into a higher rate.

The order may shave something off the margins. We think affordability will be decided by market rates and home prices, and this order is unlikely to move either much.