Zach LaChance

Washington Examiner

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte announced on Saturday that his agency is actively working to introduce a 50-year mortgage term, a move that comes as President Donald Trump is grappling with the public’s concerns about affordability.

Trump recently blasted the issue of affordability as a “con job” after Republicans suffered widespread losses in the 2025 midyear elections because of Democrats’ messaging on it. Despite it stoking his ire, the president is reportedly planning to discuss the issue much more frequently, evident in his recent press conference announcing discounted prices for obesity drugs.

Trump only seemed to continue his focus on the issue at the start of the weekend. On Saturday, he posted a graphic teasing a 50-year mortgage term. The image, titled “Great American Presidents,” has former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Trump side by side and under the titles “30-Year Mortgage” and “50-Year Mortgage,” respectively.

Pulte later confirmed that the administration is “working on” a potential 50-year mortgage term to boost housing affordability, calling it a “complete game changer.”

Trump’s nod to Roosevelt lines up with his desire for an even longer mortgage term. The 32nd president’s New Deal legislation created new agencies, including the Federal Housing Administration, that offered relief during the Great Depression by providing longer mortgage terms. The 30-year mortgage term specifically, though, wasn’t authorized by Congress until late 1940s, years after Roosevelt’s death in office.

Trump’s teasing of the new loan term at least partly fulfills a campaign promise to tackle the issue of housing affordability. On the first day of his second term, Trump also signed an executive order instructing all agencies to “deliver emergency price relief” to the public, including in the housing sector. Trump specifically called for lowering housing costs as well as increasing supply.