By Claire Whitcomb
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at lowering the recurring and closing costs of owning a home, directing federal housing agencies to cancel mortgage insurance sooner on future loans, make cheaper refinancing permanent and nationwide, and speed up factory-built housing.
The order, titled “Decreasing Housing Costs for the American People,” arrives as buyers in Buffalo and across the country contend with mortgage rates above 7% and home prices that keep rising.
“The American Dream of homeownership is a vital pillar of our great country,” the order states. It says the administration’s policy is to “reduce regulatory barriers to mortgage origination and costs impeding homeownership” and “promote competition and innovation throughout the housing and mortgage market.”
What the order does
The order has four main parts, according to the text and a White House fact sheet:
- Mortgage insurance. The director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is to have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set up a pilot program, for mortgages made after it launches, that uses automated valuation models to find borrowers whose equity based on current market value qualifies them to drop mortgage insurance, and then cancels it “proactively.” Servicers would be told to notify borrowers and cut paperwork and appraisal costs.
- Title insurance on refinances. The FHFA is to expand its title acceptance pilot into an ongoing program “available nationwide through both Enterprises,” letting Fannie and Freddie accept an approved automated title review instead of a lender’s title insurance policy on eligible refinances. The FHFA is to consider raising the current 80% loan-to-value limit, removing geographic limits and certifying more providers, and must require that savings be passed to borrowers.
- Manufactured housing. A new Task Force on Manufactured Housing Innovation, co-chaired by the HUD secretary and the FHFA director, has 180 days to recommend ways to cut duplicative federal reviews of factory-built homes. It will also study whether federal grants can be used to encourage states and localities to adopt standardized permitting.
- Direct loans. The secretaries of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs are to reduce interest rates on single-family home loans their departments make directly, consistent with law and appropriations.
The fact sheet says the mortgage-insurance pilot “will eliminate a large monthly expense for qualifying Americans across the country.”
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte said on X that “millions of Americans will save thousands and thousands of dollars,” CNBC reported.
Industry reaction
The mortgage insurance industry, whose product is the target of the first provision, welcomed the order’s goal.
“We commend the President’s focus on lowering costs for future homeowners, and the private mortgage insurance industry is proud to already be delivering on that goal,” Seth Appleton, president of U.S. Mortgage Insurers, said in a statement quoted by CNBC.
Keith Gumbinger, vice president of the mortgage website HSH, told CNBC the order could help at the margins. “I don’t know that it’s necessarily a game-changer in terms of the cost of housing, which is dictated by home price and mortgage rates at the moment,” he said. “But you know, every little bit certainly helps.”
Gumbinger added that the lender’s title policy “has always been fairly pricey.” Former FHFA Director Sandra Thompson told Congress in April 2024 that consumers could save $500 to $1,500 in closing costs on loans under the title pilot, according to CNBC.
The title insurance industry has fought the pilot. In March 2025, the American Land Title Association told HousingWire that “No one should be fooled by exaggerated claims of cost savings.” Lenders using the waiver have reported real savings: United Wholesale Mortgage Chief Operating Officer Melinda Wilner told the publication that “On average, borrowers save more than $1,000 per transaction.”
What it could mean in New York
The nationwide expansion could matter here. When HousingWire surveyed the pilot in March 2025, UWM’s version, called TRAC Lite, was available in 14 states, and New York was not among them.
Buffalo-area buyers are paying more. In September, the median sale price in the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors’ market rose 8.0% from a year earlier, to $307,750 from $285,000, according to the association’s monthly report, which uses New York State MLS data. Closed sales fell 6.0% to 995, while inventory rose 21.5% to 2,357 homes and new listings climbed 7.0% to 1,489. The market had 2.6 months of supply.
Rates remain high. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 7.32% as of Oct. 23, according to Freddie Mac, and refinance demand in mid-October was down 59% from a year earlier, CNBC reported. The BNAR report notes that the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate on Sept. 16 to a range of 3.75% to 4%.
Mortgage insurance is common for local first-time buyers, who often put down less than 20%. Under current rules, conventional borrowers can generally ask to drop private mortgage insurance once their balance reaches 80% of the original value, and it ends automatically at 78%, CNBC noted. A pilot that measures equity against current market value could let borrowers in an appreciating market such as Buffalo reach that threshold sooner, although the order applies only to loans made after the pilot begins.
Part of a series
The White House described the order as the latest in a string of housing actions, including a January order to restrict large institutional investors from buying single-family homes and a March order on removing regulatory barriers to home construction. The order comes less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, CNBC noted.
Many details, including eligibility thresholds and launch dates for the pilots, are left to the FHFA. The Buffalo Chronicle has asked the White House and the FHFA when the programs will start and whether New York borrowers will be eligible for the refinance program at launch.
Featured image: House on Greeley Street, Buffalo. Photo by Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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