Trump’s executive order targets mortgage insurance, refinance costs

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at lowering mortgage costs as rising interest rates and inflation make home ownership less affordable.

The order, titled “Reducing Housing Costs for Americans,” directs federal agencies to proactively cancel mortgage insurance on eligible future loans and expand programs to make refinancing cheaper, among other actions.

In a post X on Thursday, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte said “millions of Americans will save thousands and thousands of dollars.”

But it’s hard to know the impact on consumers in the future without more details, according to Keith Gumbinger, vice president of mortgage website HSH.

Trump’s executive order comes less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, with rising costs and housing affordability a top issue among voters. It builds on previous orders to restrict Wall Street firms from buying single-family homes, among other actions.

Home ownership has become less affordable in recent years. By 2025, the monthly payment for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage on a home worth about 33% of the median family income, up from 26% in 2022, according to the latest Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances published in early October.

Whether you are a current homeowner or a prospective buyer, here are some important things to know about the new executive order.

Conventional loans — mortgages that aren’t insured or backed by a U.S. government program — typically require private mortgage insurance, or PMI, when the down payment is less than 20% of the home’s purchase price. By contrast, Federal Housing Administration mortgages require mortgage insurance on all loans.

Trump’s executive order directed the FHFA to create a pilot program that cancels eligible borrowers’ mortgage insurance “proactively” after their home equity reaches a certain threshold, according to the White House. This will apply to mortgages originated after the pilot program is launched.

Currently, conventional loan borrowers can generally remove PMI if the loan balance is less than 80% of the purchase price or if they have reached 20% equity, according to Fannie Mae. Once your balance reaches 80% of its original value, you can ask your loan provider if you are eligible to have PMI removed, or it may be automatically removed when your balance reaches 78% of its original value.

In a statement on Friday, Seth Appleton, president of the US mortgage insurance company, an industry trade organization, said: “We praise the President’s focus on lowering costs for future homeowners, and the private mortgage insurance industry is proud to have delivered on that goal.”

Typically, PMI costs can be 0.2% to 2% of the loan annually, but it varies based on the size of the down payment, credit score, amount borrowed and other factors, according to Fannie Mae.

For example, if you buy a $600,000 home with a 10% down payment and a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 7.3%, your monthly mortgage insurance could be $351, according to a personal mortgage calculator from Freddie Mac.

“Most mortgages … carry the PMI at this point, especially with the way home prices and payments are down a bit like they have been in recent years,” Gumbinger said.

During the second quarter of 2026, the average home down payment was 13.7% of the home’s purchase price, or $27,100, according to a September report from Realtor.com.

Trump’s executive order also aims to reduce mortgage refinancing costs by making permanent the FHFA pilot program that eliminates lenders’ title insurance policies and allows for “cost-friendly alternatives,” according to the White House.

“I don’t know that it should be a game-changer in terms of housing costs, which is dictated by the home price and mortgage rates at the moment,” Gumbinger said. “But you know, every little bit always helps.”

As of October 23, mortgage interest rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages were 7.32%, according to Freddie Mac, and refinance requests fell 59% in mid-October, compared to the same week a year earlier.

Originally planned to run until November 2027, the FHFA pilot was “limited in scope,” for refinances with a loan-to-value ratio below 80%, in some states, former FHFA director Sandra Thompson said during a congressional hearing in April 2024.

Thompson estimates that consumers could save $500 to $1,500 in closing costs for loans sold in the pilot program.

Making the program permanent could save borrowers because lenders’ title insurance policies, which are typically required for new loans and financing, “have always been expensive,” Gumbinger said.

Lender fees related to title and title insurance generally make up the largest portion of mortgage closing costs, according to the Urban Institute 2025 report.