Overview
- FHFA Director Bill Pulte called a 50-year mortgage a potential tool under review, offering no design details or timeline.
- Trump downplayed the concept in a Fox News interview, calling it “not a big deal” that might help a little by lowering monthly payments.
- Modeling shows modest monthly savings on a median-priced home—for example, roughly $2,288 on a 30-year loan versus about $2,022 on a 50-year at similar rates, or $2,813 falling to $2,577 in other estimates.
- Analysts warn total interest costs would jump substantially, potentially roughly doubling, and equity would build far more slowly, raising negative-equity and default risks.
- Current law bars Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from backing mortgages longer than 30 years, so any rollout would require regulatory or congressional changes and willing secondary-market buyers, as critics argue it would not fix the supply shortage.