Trump Order Targets Mortgage Insurance, Title Costs and Manufactured Housing

President Donald Trump signed a multipart executive order on Oct. 22 that directs federal agencies to lower some costs of buying a home, from mortgage insurance to title insurance, and to promote manufactured housing. The order, titled Decreasing Housing Costs for the American People, arrives less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, in which affordability is a central concern.

The order mostly instructs agencies to create or expand programs. It does not itself change what borrowers pay, and the sources reviewed here do not list start dates or dollar savings.

What the order directs agencies to do

According to The Mortgage Point and the New Jersey Herald, the order includes several main provisions:

• Mortgage insurance: The Federal Housing Finance Agency is to set up a pilot program that proactively cancels mortgage insurance for eligible borrowers with government-backed home loans. The order describes these as borrowers who appear to meet equity and other requirements, and it calls the insurance being targeted excessive. The New Jersey Herald reported that the provision applies to eligible future loans.
• Title insurance: The FHFA is to expand an existing program that lets borrowers qualify for government-sponsored mortgages using cheaper alternatives to title insurance, such as an automated title review or other title-risk assessments.
• Interest rates: The departments of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture are called on to reduce interest rates on the single-family mortgages offered through their housing programs.
• Technology: The order's policy statement favors risk and value assessment technologies that use what it calls “Super Intelligence” to bring down mortgage and homeownership costs.

A new task force for manufactured homes

The order also creates the Task Force on Manufactured Housing Innovation, a multiagency group meant to encourage innovation in building manufactured homes. Politico noted that the administration and Congress have both promoted such housing as one answer to rising construction costs.

FHFA Director Bill Pulte and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner will chair the task force. Pulte called the order “The greatest Housing Executive Order in History,” according to the New Jersey Herald. Turner said in a statement that decades of regulatory red tape have hampered home building and that the task force can modernize standards and speed up approvals across government.

In its own statement, the White House said the administration is working to cut burdensome costs and red tape to make homeownership more affordable.

Why it matters for homebuyers and borrowers

The provisions touch several costs that buyers face: mortgage insurance, title insurance and interest rates on VA and Agriculture Department home loans. If the programs are carried out as described, the people most directly affected would be those with government-backed loans, veterans and others using those federal lending programs, and buyers interested in manufactured homes.

The details that would determine who benefits were not disclosed in the reports. These include which borrowers would qualify for the insurance cancellation pilot, how much interest rates would fall, and when any changes would take effect. Because the order directs agencies to act, the practical effect will depend on how they carry out those instructions.

The backdrop: a slow market and a midterm campaign

The Mortgage Point reported that the order comes amid a slow housing market and rising lending costs. Politico said the high cost of housing has weighed on a midterm cycle focused on voters’ economic frustrations. The Mortgage Point also noted that the order reflects a draft Politico published earlier.

The order follows the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, which Congress passed in July. The New Jersey Herald reported that the law contains 45 provisions aimed at encouraging home construction, widening access to home financing and restricting purchases by large institutional investors.

Around Prague, based on reporting by themortgagepoint.com, New Jersey Herald