President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Oct. 22, 2026, that tells the Federal Housing Finance Agency to start canceling borrowers’ mortgage insurance on its own once their equity, measured at today’s home values, is high enough, and to turn a limited title insurance waiver for refinances into a permanent program. According to a White House fact sheet published the same afternoon, the order also creates a federal task force on factory-built housing and directs the Agriculture and Veterans Affairs departments to cut interest rates on the home loans they make.
The order targets the fees and premiums that sit on top of a mortgage rather than the rate itself. That’s the part of homeownership costs the administration can move without the Federal Reserve. It arrives in a week when the average 30-year fixed rate stands at 7.32%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey released Oct. 22. That’s down from 7.40% a week earlier, the first weekly decline since August, but still well above the 6.19% of a year ago.
What the executive order on housing costs directs
The fact sheet lists four directives:
- Mortgage insurance cancellation. The FHFA director is to create a pilot program to cancel borrowers’ mortgage insurance premiums “proactively once they have satisfied their equity requirements based on the current market value.” The White House says this will “eliminate a large monthly expense for qualifying Americans across the country.”
- Title insurance on refinances. The FHFA director is to expand the agency’s title insurance waiver pilot “into a permanent program to allow more borrowers to utilize cost-friendly alternatives to title insurance,” with the stated aim of reducing refinance closing costs.
- Manufactured housing. The order sets up a Task Force on Manufactured Housing Innovation to promote “modern manufacturing methods in the production of factory-built housing eligible for federal housing programs.”
- Federal loan rates. The secretaries of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs are told to reduce interest rates on single-family home loans “made by their respective Departments.”
The fact sheet gives no deadlines, eligibility rules or estimated savings for any of the four. As of late afternoon on Oct. 22, the order’s full text had not yet been posted on the White House’s presidential actions page. The details below that depend on it, including which loans qualify and when the pilot starts, will have to wait for that text and for FHFA’s implementation.
Why “current market value” is the key phrase
Of the four directives, the mortgage insurance pilot has the widest potential reach among existing homeowners. Under the federal rules summarized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a borrower can ask a servicer to drop private mortgage insurance once the loan balance reaches 80% of the home’s original value. Servicers must end it automatically when the balance is scheduled to reach 78% of that original value. “Original value” generally means the lower of the purchase price or the appraisal at purchase. The CFPB notes that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can set their own cancellation rules, as long as those rules are no less favorable to borrowers.
The order points the pilot at current market value instead, and has it act without waiting for the borrower to ask. On our reading, that would mainly help owners whose homes have gained value since they bought, since their equity may already clear the bar even though their scheduled balance does not. How the pilot measures current value, and whether it applies to every loan Fannie and Freddie hold, are not addressed in the fact sheet.
FHFA regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It does not set the premiums on FHA-insured loans, which follow HUD’s rules, and the fact sheet does not mention FHA.
A title pilot with a contested history
The title directive builds on a program that has drawn resistance before. When FHFA approved Fannie Mae’s title acceptance pilot, then-Director Sandra Thompson said in a March 7, 2024, statement that it would “waive the requirement for lender’s title insurance or a legal opinion on certain low-risk refinance transactions.” The waiver applies only where the borrower already holds title to the property.
In July 2024, attorneys general from 14 states urged FHFA to “terminate implementation of this misguided pilot program.” They argued, according to the American Land Title Association, that it moves title risk from state-regulated insurers to Fannie Mae and mainly benefits lower-risk refinance borrowers rather than first-time and low-income buyers. On our reading, making the pilot permanent could reopen that dispute with the title industry. Because the waiver covers refinances, its savings would grow mainly if rates fall far enough to bring refinancing back.
Part of a year of housing orders
The White House presents the order as the latest step in a series. It includes a January 2026 executive order aimed at keeping large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. Congress has since written a ban into the ROAD to Housing Act, and Treasury proposed rules for that 350-home investor ban earlier on Oct. 22. The series also includes the January directive for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities, and a March 2026 order aimed at regulations the administration says drove up mortgage costs. The fact sheet also credits the administration’s immigration and H-1B visa policies with lowering home prices and rents, a claim it does not support with figures.
The manufactured housing task force joins work already under way at HUD, which has floated dropping the permanent-chassis requirement and extending its code to buildings of five units or more. The fact sheet does not say who will sit on the new task force or how it will relate to HUD’s code process.
For buyers and owners, the order changes nothing immediately. The mortgage insurance and title changes run through FHFA, and the loan-rate cuts through USDA and VA, so the practical effect depends on what those agencies publish next. Readers tracking the rate side of the affordability picture can follow our mortgage coverage.
