President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at making housing cheaper by cutting mortgage insurance and refinance costs and pushing more affordable manufactured housing. The order, published the same day, directs the Federal Housing Finance Agency to move on a pilot program for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to expand title-review changes that could reduce closing costs for borrowers.
The timing matters because Americans are still wrestling with housing affordability while mortgage rates remain near decade highs. Trump said he wanted to see new technologies, including artificial intelligence and “super intelligence,” used to accelerate the housing market, and the order says it is the administration’s policy to reduce regulatory barriers to mortgage origination and the costs that make homeownership harder to reach.
The biggest near-term change is the pilot program on mortgage insurance. It is aimed at homeowners who have built enough equity to qualify for cancellation, and it would use automated valuation models to check home values periodically and end insurance when borrowers meet the requirements. The order also tells the agency to broaden a program that accepts automated title reviews instead of traditional lender’s title insurance policies, a step that could trim costs in transactions where the paperwork is the expensive part.
That push overlaps with legislation Congress passed this year after months of negotiations. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act included 45 provisions on cutting red tape and adding more homes, including a pilot program to cancel excessive mortgage insurance for select borrowers and a task force to promote manufactured-housing innovation. Trump refused to sign that measure even as it became law, then turned around and signed an order with some of the same housing goals built in.
The overlap is what gives the order its bite and its limits. Scott Turner said Trump is committing to bring more innovative and affordable housing solutions to market, and Bill Pulte posted on X that it was “the greatest Housing Executive Order in History” and said it could save “thousands” of dollars for millions of Americans. But the public material does not spell out how much savings the insurance pilot or title-review expansion will deliver on average, or how fast borrowers will feel it.
Shannon McGahn said the administration is focused on housing affordability, adding, “We appreciate the President’s continued focus on this critical” issue. For borrowers, the practical question is simpler than the politics: whether the new rules translate into real monthly savings before high rates and stubborn inflation eat up any gain.
