I’m really starting to enjoy these clips from Mornings with Maria.
Yesterday, it was her and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent talking about the Fed and mortgage rates.
Today, it’s FHFA Director Bill Pulte talking about the lower mortgage rates under Trump.
And the apparent refinance boom that’s now taking place as well.
The best part is Pulte brought slides to show the audience.
Pulte Boasts About Mortgage Rates Under Trump
FHFA Director Bill Pulte took a short break from talking about mortgage fraud to boast about the housing market under the new administration.
He noted that, “Since the President has come into office he’s lowered mortgage rates, you can see, you know, when he started out, it’s already down.”
And Pulte brought the receipts in the form of what appears to be a Freddie Mac chart that shows the 30-year fixed at 6.94% when Trump started and 6.26% today.
This is actually true. Mortgage rates are down from the beginning of the year by a fairly wide margin.
Whether that’s because of the President or simply because of cooling economic data is another question.
But what I find hilarious is someone actually took the time to make cardboard slides that show the trajectory of the 30-year fixed since January.
That actually tells me that this administration is sticking to their “promise” to bring down mortgage rates.
The Good News Is the Trump Admin Seems Fixated on Getting Mortgage Rates Lower
When Trump was campaigning, he spoke about getting mortgage rates back down to the levels seen during the pandemic.
You remember those 3% mortgage rates, right?
Well, a few months before he won his second term, he told an audience at the Economic Club of New York that, “Reducing mortgage rates is a big factor.”
“We are going to get them back down to 3%, maybe even lower than that, saving the average home buyer thousands of dollars per year.”
While that was and continues to be a very ambitious goal, Trump is at least still fixated on lowering mortgage rates now as he was then.
And he has his FHFA director Pulte out here spreading the good word. So clearly they want that win and perhaps will do what’s needed to get rates even lower.
Of course, outside of another round of Quantitative Easing (QE), the easiest way to get mortgage rates lower is to see the economy slow.
If the labor market continues to crack, as it has been the past couple months, mortgage rates should benefit.
The problem there is the administration won’t be thrilled if scores of Americans are losing their jobs, even if it results in a lower 30-year fixed.
So it’s going to be a bit of a balancing act to get mortgage rates even lower while keeping the economy together.
Another Mini Refinance Boom
In addition to taking a victory lap on mortgage rates, Pulte added that, “And then on top of that Maria, refinancings are through the roof.”
Again, it’s true that we’ve seen mortgage refinance applications surge lately.
During the week ended September 17th, the MBA reported that the Refinance Index had increased a whopping 58% from the previous week and was 70% higher than the same week a year ago.
Even getting mortgage rates into the low-6s has unlocked a couple million more refinance candidates who are “in the money.”
That means being able to secure an interest rate at least 0.75% below their existing rate.
If rates continue to move lower and somehow get to 5.5%, we would see five million more homeowners benefit from a rate and term refinance.
It would be a boon to mortgage lenders and also provide much needed relief to homeowners, especially recent buyers who got saddled with rates in the high-6s and 7s.
Read on: 2025 Mortgage Rate Predictions
Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 19 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.