Housing executive confirms administration is ‘working on’ 50-year mortgage after Trump hint

The Trump administration is “working on” a plan to offer 50-year mortgage terms to homebuyers, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Administrator Bill Bolte said Saturday.

“Thanks to President Trump, we are already working on a 50-year mortgage – a complete game changer,” Bolte wrote in a statement on social media platform X.

This followed a Truth Social post by President Trump earlier today in which he shared a drawing alongside a photo of himself next to a photo of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The administration that oversaw the New Deal created the 30-year mortgage standard to help citizens recover from the Great Depression.

Likewise, Trump’s campaign focused on providing affordability to the younger generation last year, but the president has faced headwinds on the issue recently as prices have risen.

Google searches for “mortgage help” recently rose to their highest level since 2009, while adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, have also been popular. ARMs accounted for about 10 percent of all mortgage applications in September — the highest share in nearly two years and well above the post-2008 average of 6 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

However, home prices and interest rates remain relatively high, with the average household spending about 38.4% of its monthly income on mortgage payments, Redfin determined.

In May, Trump said he was considering taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public. The two primary companies of the mortgage market were originally created by Congress, but remained private companies funded by the Treasury Department until the housing market crash in 2008.

“I am very seriously considering taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, adding that he would make a decision in the “near future.”

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are doing very well, having shed a lot of cash, and it seems like the time is right. Stay tuned,” he added.

Bolte, whose agency is responsible for monitoring Fannie and Freddie, confirmed last month that Trump is “opportunistically evaluating” whether to launch the companies into the market as early as the end of 2025.

The FHFA director may be best known for his campaigns against Trump’s perceived enemies, including New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), who faces mortgage fraud charges based on documents uncovered by the agency.