Congressional Republicans are highly skeptical of the Trump administration’s proposal for a 50-year mortgage.
The idea, which Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte pitched to President Donald Trump over the weekend, would mean lower monthly payments for homeowners. But lawmakers this week said that wasn’t enough to outweigh the downsides.
“I worry about the interest that will accrue on Americans,” Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., told Semafor. “So I think we’ve got to work on that a little bit more.”
Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., pointed to the amount of time it would take homeowners to pay them off: “Life expectancy is late-70s. I want people to own their home someday.”
“I’m open to anybody’s ideas, but that’s not going to be the fix that gets us out of our housing affordability problems,” Flood, who chairs the housing subcommittee on the House Financial Services Committee, added. He suggested making it easier to access federal funds — in line with a proposal the Senate recently passed as part of annual defense legislation — instead.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he was not “ideologically opposed” to the idea but would “like to go into the underwriting” to evaluate how the greater risks might raise costs instead of lower them.
“I just think about the performance rate, failure rate, how you would create derivatives for mortgage-backed securities — that all goes into it,” Tillis said.
FHFA did not respond to a request for comment.