Federal housing agencies were directed to pursue mortgage and construction changes aimed at reducing homeownership costs under an executive order published Oct. 22, the White House said.
The order, titled “Decreasing Housing Costs for the American People,” seeks to make mortgage insurance easier to cancel and broaden alternatives to title insurance for refinancing. It sets policy directions rather than presenting research findings or estimates of savings.
The White House order would extend eligibility for an alternative to title insurance beyond the current 80% limit on borrowing relative to a home's value, where title risk remains low. The proposed expansion depends on approval by the Federal Housing Finance Agency director.
The order directs the regulator to make the title acceptance pilot an ongoing nationwide program through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, subject to legal and financial safeguards. Eligible refinancings could use automated checks of property ownership records instead of a lender's title insurance policy.
The order also calls for removing geographic restrictions and approving more providers of title assessments. It requires lenders to pass resulting savings to borrowers and tell them about those savings.
For certain refinancings that lower monthly payments, the order calls for waiving appraisals, repeat income checks and other paperwork when existing data support doing so. It also calls for reducing or removing fees on those loans.
A separate pilot would review mortgages periodically to identify borrowers eligible to cancel mortgage insurance, which protects lenders if borrowers fail to repay. The order limits that pilot to mortgages made after its establishment.
Under the order, automated property valuations and other data would help determine whether borrowers have enough equity to qualify. Cancellation would still require acceptable payment histories and compliance with legal, contractual and financial safeguards.
The order directs mortgage servicers to notify eligible borrowers promptly where legally permitted and practical. It also calls for reducing unnecessary paperwork, appraisal costs and other administrative obstacles to cancellation.
The White House gave a new manufactured-housing task force 180 days to recommend ways to expand modern factory production methods for homes eligible for federal housing programs. The housing secretary and housing-finance regulator will jointly lead it.
The order asks the task force to propose shared approvals and inspections across agencies, eliminate duplicate reviews and consider how federal financing could support production. Its recommendations must preserve standards for safety, quality, durability and consumer protection.
The task force must also assess whether existing law allows federal grants to encourage standardized state and local permitting, the order says. It must prepare legislative proposals to put those policies into law.
The order separately directs the Agriculture and Veterans Affairs departments to lower interest rates on single-family mortgages they make directly. It specifies no reduction and makes implementation subject to applicable law and available appropriations.
