President says 50-year mortgage proposal is ‘not even a big deal’ as questions mount
President Trump’s plan to roll out 50-year mortgages was greeted with a tepid reception – at best – by the mortgage industry over the weekend.
But the president insisted in a Monday Fox News interview that the proposal was a solid one amid growing doubts about how effective the longer-term offering would actually be.
“It’s not even a big deal,” Trump told interviewer Laura Ingraham. “All it means is you pay less per month. You pay it over a long period of time. It’s not like a big factor.”
The plan, reportedly floated to the president by Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Bill Pulte, would offer borrowers the ability to pay down their mortgage over a much longer period than the current 30-year standard.
Many industry figures pointed out that the suggestion would increase the amount of time it took borrowers to fully pay off their mortgage and increase the amount of interest being paid to lenders.
Still, others said it could prove an important first step in identifying new ways to improve affordability for squeezed homebuyers and owners.
“I think exploring change is usually a good thing,” Austin Smith of Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation told Mortgage Professional America. “Understanding the current status of anything and examining alternatives usually lead to discovery – and whatever gets measured can get improved.”
Questions remain over plan’s popularity
Smith said he had already fielded numerous inquiries from clients about the 50-year mortgage and what it might mean for them, but underlined that it wouldn’t be the right option for a lot of buyers.
“The math has to make sense from an affordability standpoint,” he said. “As terms increase typically so do rates, and costs, and the ROI [return on investment] can be delayed and investors want coverage.
“That then is passed to the consumer, which can dampen the impact. We’ve had a 40-year option for about 12 months now and have had little to no interest in that. We also have an interest-only option available as well, and most people don’t believe that to be as helpful as they hoped due to the increased costs and rate for comparisons.”
There’s been no indication yet of how or when those mortgage types would become available, with Pulte indicating over the weekend on X that the administration was “working on” the idea.
He also questioned whether a longer term would really see most borrowers paying down the mortgage over its full duration. “According to the National Association of Realtors, the average tenure of a 30 year mortgage borrower is approximately 8 years,” Pulte wrote on Monday.
But White House officials reportedly aren’t keen on the idea, with Politico suggesting Trump’s team is “furious” with Pulte for suggesting the 50-year plan.
Trump renews criticism of Federal Reserve
Ingraham told Trump the 50-year mortgage proposal had “enraged” his base because it would keep homeowners indebted to big banks for much longer.
But Trump blamed his predecessor Joe Biden and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for the current housing market gridlock, renewing a regular attack line on the Fed chief and suggesting he would install a successor who would lower interest rates.
PRESIDENT TRUMP on the 50 year-mortgage proposal: “All it means is you pay less per month, you pay it over a longer period of time.”
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 11, 2025
“The problem was that Biden did this – he increased the interest rates – and I have a lousy fed person who's going to be gone in a few months.” |… pic.twitter.com/wsMlOXPOz2
“I have a lousy Fed person who’s going to be gone in a few months, fortunately,” he said. “Jerome Powell, we call him ‘Too Late’. He was too late in everything… We’re going to get interest rates down.”
Powell has been a frequent target of Trump throughout this year, with the president suggesting on multiple occasions that the Fed’s policy rate – which does not directly determine mortgage rates, but can influence them – should be much lower.
His term is due to expire in May, with the administration reportedly having narrowed the list of contenders to replace Powell down to about five names.
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