The Trump administration’s idea to introduce 50-year mortgage terms in an effort to help Americans purchase homes may not actually do much to improve housing affordability, according to some analysts.
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte confirmed that his agency is “working on” the 50-year loan option in a Saturday X post, shortly after President Donald Trump floated the idea in a post to Truth Social. Some economists, however, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the longer loan option could potentially cause issues such as raising home prices.
“Fifty-year mortgages aren’t offered in the private market for a reason: they’re unattractive to buyers because they accumulate little equity but a lot of interest, and they’re unattractive to lenders because the risks of such a long mortgage are considerable,” Jason P. Sorens, an American Institute for Economic Research economist, told the DCNF. “As a policy proposal, creating 50-year mortgages through subsidies or other financial incentives wouldn’t improve affordability because they would act as a demand subsidy, stimulating more home-buying and thus raising house prices.”
Sorens also told the DCNF that “at best,” the introduction of 50-year mortgages could boost the nation’s homeownership rate.
“At best they might increase the homeownership rate by making it more attractive for some people to buy rather than rent, but they might also encourage substitution away from 30-year mortgages, raising default risk, which ultimately is borne by taxpayers through the government-sponsored enterprises,” he continued.
An U.S. Federal Housing spokesman told the DCNF in a statement that “we are studying a wide variety of options to reverse the damage [former President Joe] Biden did to the housing market these last four years.”
As of Tuesday, the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage in the U.S. was 6.31%, according to Bankrate. The typical age of first-time homebuyers hit an all-time high of 40 in 2025, compared to 38 in 2024, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors released on Nov. 4.
Moreover, steeper mortgage rates are costing homebuyers an additional $7,200 annually in financing for a $400,000 home, while just 28% of homes on the market are affordable for a typical U.S. household, Realtor.com reported on Aug. 21.
“Basically, the 50-year mortgage makes little sense. It’s a compromise between a 30-year and an interest-only mortgage. That’s not to say it’s a bad idea, it just means a slightly lower payment because you’re paying down the principal ever so slightly slower,” J.D. Foster, the former chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget, told the DCNF. “Further, to the extent [that] a few more buyers can now afford to buy a house, that means that in some markets there will be additional upward pressure on home prices. And that’s good for affordability why?”
“If Trump feels he has to do something and there’s nothing else, then fine, but let’s not pretend it’s a game-changer,” he added.
Foster further explained to the DCNF that he thinks housing has become more “unaffordable” for some American households in recent years largely due to the rampant inflation when Biden was in the White House. During Biden’s presidency, inflation notably peaked at 9.1% in June 2022.
“Housing is ‘unaffordable’ for some because of Biden’s inflation which hammered low- and medium-earners’ after-inflation wage income,” he said. “The solution is a strong enough economy that real wages can recover the lost ground. Make housing affordable by making home buyers able to afford more.”
“The second and longstanding issue is the proclivity of state and local governments to drive up housing costs with well-meaning but costly regulations. Each new regulation may only raise costs a little bit, but after 20, 50, or 100 of these regulations, suddenly even simple homes become expensive,” Foster continued.
Additionally, many Americans grappled with surging rent prices in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with a variety of other affordability headaches. Median rents are now approximately 35% higher than they were before the pandemic, Construction Coverage reported on Oct. 23, citing data from Zillow.
Some White House officials are upset with Pulte for convincing Trump to support the 50-year mortgage plan, Politico reported Monday. The idea caught White House officials off guard, Politico reported, citing two anonymous sources.
“He just sold POTUS a bill of goods that wasn’t necessarily accurate,” one anonymous source told Politico. “He said ‘FDR did it, you can do it, it’s gonna be a big thing.’ But he didn’t tell him about all the unintended consequences.”
Some congressional Republicans have publicly criticized the idea of the Trump administration introducing 50-year mortgage terms.
Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie claimed in a Sunday X post that the Trump administration’s 50-year mortgage terms idea “seems like a recipe for default & no ability to move for better jobs or school.” Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene similarly criticized the proposed plan on X on Saturday, writing that she does not believe it is “the solution to the housing affordability crisis.”
However, Pulte asserted Saturday in an X post that his agency is “laser focused on ensuring the American Dream for YOUNG PEOPLE and that can only happen on the economic level of homebuying.” He added that a 50-year mortgage is “simply a potential weapon in a WIDE arsenal of solutions that we are developing right now.”
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