President Donald Trump shows the crowd the executive order he just signed during a campaign rally at the Pinnacle Bank Expo Center on October 5, 2026 in Grand Island, Nebraska.
Kent Nishimura | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at lowering mortgage costs as rising interest rates and inflation make home ownership less accessible.
The order, titled “Reducing Housing Costs for Americans,” directs federal agencies to take actions such as aggressively canceling mortgage insurance on eligible future loans and expanding programs that make refinancing cheaper.
“Millions of Americans will save thousands of dollars,” Federal Housing Finance Agency Commissioner Bill Pulte said Thursday on the X-Post.
But without more details, it’s difficult to know what the future impact will be on consumers, said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of mortgage website HSH.
President Trump’s executive order comes with less than two weeks until the Nov. 3 midterm elections, and rising prices and housing affordability are major concerns among voters. This builds on previous orders restricting Wall Street firms from purchasing single-family homes, among other things.
Homeownership has become less affordable in recent years. The Federal Reserve’s latest Consumer Finance Survey released in early October found that the monthly payment for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage on a median-priced home will be about 33% of median household income in 2025, up from 26% in 2022.
Whether you’re a current homeowner or a future buyer, here are some important things to know about the new executive order.
Mortgage insurance changes
Conventional loans (uninsured mortgages, or mortgages not backed by a U.S. government program) typically require private mortgage insurance (PMI) if your down payment is less than 20% of the home’s purchase price. In contrast, Federal Housing Administration mortgages require mortgage insurance on all loans.
According to the White House, President Trump’s executive order directs FHFA to create a pilot program to “aggressively” terminate mortgage insurance for eligible borrowers when their home equity reaches certain thresholds. This applies to mortgages originated after the pilot program began.
Currently, conventional loan borrowers can generally remove PMI when their loan balance falls below 80% of the purchase price or reaches 20% of their equity, according to Fannie Mae. Once your balance reaches 80% of its original value, you can ask your loan servicer if you’re eligible to have your PMI removed. Alternatively, it may be automatically removed when your balance reaches 78% of its original value.
“We applaud the president’s focus on lowering costs for future homeowners, and we are proud that the private mortgage insurance industry is already achieving that goal,” Seth Appleton, president of the industry group American Mortgage Insurance Companies, said in a statement Thursday.
Fannie Mae says the cost of PMI is typically 0.2% to 2% of the loan per year, but varies depending on factors such as down payment size, credit score and loan amount.
For example, if you buy a $600,000 home with a 10% down payment and a 7.3% 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, your monthly mortgage insurance premium could be $351, according to Freddie Mac’s private mortgage calculator.
“Most mortgages have PMI at this point, especially with home price trends and down payments being as small as they have been in recent years,” Gumbinger said.
According to a September report from Realtor.com, the median down payment for a home in the second quarter of 2026 was 13.7% of the home purchase price, or $27,100.
home loan refinancing costs
Trump’s executive order also aims to reduce mortgage refinancing costs by making permanent FHFA’s pilot program that exempts lenders from title insurance policies and allows for “cost-friendly alternatives,” according to the White House.
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily going to be a game-changer in terms of housing costs, which are driven by house prices and mortgage rates at this point,” Gumbinger said. “But every little thing certainly helps.”
As of Oct. 23, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate was 7.32%, and refinance demand in mid-October was down 59% compared to the same week last year, according to Freddie Mac.
Former FHFA Director Sandra Thompson said at a Congressional hearing in April 2024 that the FHFA pilot, originally planned through November 2027, was “limited in scope” to refinances with loan-to-value ratios below 80% in some states.
Thompson estimated that consumers could save between $500 and $1,500 in closing costs on loans sold under the pilot program.
Gumbinger said making the program permanent could help borrowers because lenders’ title insurance policies, which are typically required for new loans or refinances, “have always been pretty expensive.”
According to a 2025 Urban Institute report, lender fees related to title and title insurance typically make up the largest percentage of mortgage closing costs.
