Opinion: Former FHA Chief Frank Cassidy Proposes a 'Trump Mortgage' to Cut First-Time Buyers' Rates by Up to 1.5 Points
Cassidy says first-time buyers are down to 21% of purchases, a record low. He would have Treasury, Fannie and Freddie buy qualifying mortgage bonds and expand tax-exempt mortgage bonds. It is his proposal, not policy.
Frank Cassidy, who served as President Trump's Federal Housing Administration commissioner, argues in a Fox News opinion piece that Trump Accounts should be followed by help buying a first home.
The setup. He says he enrolled his daughter Margot, born in March 2025, in a Trump Account. The program gives eligible children born from 2025 to 2028 a $1,000 federal contribution. He says he bought his first house at 20 for $200,000 with an FHA-insured loan, 3.5% down, and an $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit, and that it has more than doubled in value.
The problem. He cites the National Association of Realtors: first-time buyers are 21% of home purchases, the lowest share since tracking began in 1981.
The proposal. He calls it a "Trump Mortgage," a national program to give qualified first-time buyers rates one to one and a half points below market. It has two parts. First, Treasury, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would buy bonds backed by qualifying first-time buyer mortgages, hold them while rates are high and sell when they fall, which he says resembles a strategy Treasury Secretary Bessent and FHFA Director Pulte already use. Second, Congress would expand tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds, which state housing agencies have issued for decades. He says bipartisan legislation to expand them is already proposed.
His math. On a $330,000, 30-year loan for a $350,000 home, moving from 6.5% to 5% cuts the monthly principal and interest from about $2,086 to about $1,772. That is more than $300 a month and, he says, $100,000 over the loan.
The limits he names. He says the program would not be free money, would need caps on size, funding cost, prepayment risk and taxpayer exposure, and that lower rates alone will not fix the housing shortage. Building more homes must go with it.
Note for readers: this is an opinion column, not an announced policy. The market figures and the monthly savings are Cassidy's own, and we have not checked them. The piece does not say whether the White House supports the idea.