President Donald J. Trump’s order to lower U.S. housing costs directs federal agencies to review mortgage-insurance cancellations and broaden title assessments for some refinances, with refinancing-program savings required to reach borrowers.
Signed Oct. 22 and published in the Federal Register on Oct. 28, the order instructs the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to have the Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation run a pilot. The enterprises would periodically review single-family loans they own, guarantee or securitize, using property-value estimates and other information to identify borrowers who may qualify to end mortgage-insurance payments.
The pilot would cover mortgages made after it begins. Cancellation would depend on equity, payment history and other eligibility requirements. The FHFA director may proceed only after determining the pilot is in the best interests of the enterprises or FHFA, and the American public.
People refinancing could benefit from a separate change. Subject to conditions in the order, the FHFA director is to expand the existing title acceptance pilot nationwide. The enterprises may use an automated title review or another FHFA-approved assessment of title risk instead of a lender’s title insurance policy. Any savings must go to borrowers, and lenders must tell them about those savings.
The order also calls for lower interest rates on direct single-family loans offered by the Department of Agriculture and Department of Veterans Affairs, within applicable legal and funding limits. The order assigns publication costs to FHFA but does not specify who would bear other program expenses.
For housing supply, the order creates the Task Force on Manufactured Housing Innovation, co-chaired by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the FHFA director. Its recommendations will address manufactured and other factory-built housing eligible for federal housing programs, including ways to coordinate federal standards and approvals, reduce overlapping reviews and support modern production. The task force may also consider incentives for standardized state and local permitting and federal financing authorities.
The order cites regulatory barriers and costs as obstacles to homeownership and refers to Executive Order 14394, dated March 13, 2026, on reducing barriers to affordable home construction. The task force must submit its recommendations within 180 days of the Oct. 22 order.
