Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte appears to be backing away from the idea of improving housing affordability with 50-year mortgages, after the idea faced strong backlash.
“We have other priorities,” Pulte told reporters Friday when asked if the White House would continue its 50-year loan program.
Instead, Pulte praised the President Donald Trumpa new proposal to restrict ownership of single-family homes, and said the president is reviewing several solutions to the housing crisis.
“We looked at everything. We presented the president with anywhere between 30 to 50 different options” to improve accessibility, Pulte told CNBC. “It will be up to the president what he wants to do, if anything.”
Pulte was the mastermind behind the controversial 50-year loan proposal, which, according to Politico, he presented to Trump during an impromptu meeting at Trump’s Palm Beach Golf Club in November.
Shortly after Pulte presented a program on the big board comparing Trump to the President Franklin D. RooseveltTrump posted a photo of Pulte’s poster on Truth Social, sparking a furor that reportedly blindsided top aides.
While a 50-year term may slightly lower monthly payments, lifetime interest payments on a typical home can nearly double. And, the extreme length of the loan seems to have come as a shock to even staunch Trump-supporting conservatives.
“This means your house will belong to the bank until you die, and after that. We don’t need a 50-year loan,” the analyst argued.Matt Walsh said at the time.
Housing economists were also skeptical of the plan, pointing out that homeowners would build equity at a painfully slow pace, with most of each payment toward interest for the first 37 years.
Following recent comments by Pulte, Realtor.com® chief economist Joel Berner says the White House away from 50-year debt is not a big loss for home buyers, calling this proverbial “nothingburger.”
“It was a bad idea, and it went away. Nobody wanted to build a little equity and pay that much interest to the bank,” said Berner. “Renting continues to be more affordable, so people don’t have to feel desperate until they get into a bad deal.”
Meanwhile, Trump has signaled that housing affordability will be a top priority for his administration in 2026, saying he plans to announce new plans next week.
In recent days, Trump has said he wants to stop big investors from buying single-family homes and announced plans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lower mortgage rates by buying $200 billion in mortgage bonds.
The administration is also considering the idea of ”portable loans,” which would allow homeowners to take their old loan balance with them when they leave, according to Pulte, who oversees Fannie and Freddie.
The White House is reportedly making a broad order regarding housing availability that will be revealed in the coming weeks. The provisions of the order are unclear, and it is not known what role Congress will play in the administration’s final plan.
