Trump Proposes 50-Year Mortgages: Potential Benefits and Drawbacks for Homebuyers

President Donald Trump has proposed creating 50-year mortgages to solve the housing affordability crisis, an idea that has provoked strong debate about the pros and cons of longer-term loans for homebuyers.

Trump floated the idea over the weekend on his Truth Social site, where he posted an image touting himself as the creator of the 50-year mortgage. The image also showed former President Franklin Roosevelt, who oversaw the initial creation of fixed-rate mortgages during the Great Depression.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, the nation's top mortgage regulator, seemed to confirm the plans in a post on X, writing: "Thanks to President Trump, we are indeed working on The 50 year Mortgage—a complete game changer."

"President Trump is always exploring new ways to improve housing affordability for everyday Americans," a White House official told Realtor.com®. "Any official policy changes will be announced by the White House."

For homebuyers, a 50-year mortgage would offer lower monthly payments compared to a standard 30-year loan, but total interest paid would be much higher over the lifetime of the loan, and homeowners would gain equity at a slower pace.

Those trade-offs have sharply divided reactions to the plan, with critics calling it a bad deal for homebuyers that would benefit only lenders and drive home prices higher, and supporters arguing it would give homebuyers more financing options and flexibility.

"The appeal of the 50-year mortgage is to offer lower monthly payments to homebuyers and break up the logjam of the current housing market," says Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner. "The drawbacks are that a 50-year mortgage results in almost double the interest payments of a 30-year mortgage and a longer path to meaningful home equity."

As well, Berner warns that by "subsidizing home demand without increasing home supply," 50-year mortgages could drive home prices higher, wiping out any potential savings on monthly payments.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors®, says that the "small savings" on monthly payments for a 50-year mortgages would "come with significant trade-offs."

"The slow equity build would make trading up or down very difficult," he says. "It would also take almost 40 years to pay off half the balance, meaning most borrowers would not begin building meaningful equity until the final decade."

Currently, 50-year fixed-rate mortgages are not allowed under the Qualified Mortgage (QM) rule spelled out in federal law. This means Congress would have to act to make them common and widely available.

A spokesman for the Mortgage Bankers Association tells Realtor.com that investor interest in 50-year mortgages may be limited due to their higher expected prepayment rate, which would result in higher interest rates on the loans.

"Our concern is that any affordability benefit derived from expanding the mortgage term to 50 years would be offset by increased borrower risk and slower borrower equity growth resulting from the extended amortization period, especially given the expected slowing of home price growth," the MBA spokesman says.

How a 50-year mortgage would change your payments

Significantly, average mortgage rates on 50-year loans would undoubtedly be higher than on 30-year loans, the same way 30-year rates are higher than those for 15-year mortgages.

"The longer the life of the loan, the more compensation the lender will demand," says Berner.

Last week, rates on 15-year mortgages averaged 5.5%, compared with 6.22% for 30-year home loans, according to Freddie Mac. It's unclear how much higher 50-year rates would be, as there are currently no conventional mortgages of that length for comparison.

Assuming for the sake of argument that mortgage rates were equal across both products, a 50-year mortgage would lower mortgage payments by about $250 per month on a $400,000 home, assuming 10% down and a 6.25% mortgage rate.

Total interest payments over the life of the 50-year loan would amount to $816,396, compared to $438,156 on the 30-year loan, a difference of $378,240. That amounts to 86% more interest over the life of the loan.

"Buyers do benefit from spreading out the high cost of a home purchase over a longer period, but lenders certainly benefit, too, by having a longer period to charge higher interest rates," says Berner.

As well, after 10 years of homeownership, you'd have only a 14% equity stake in your home with the 50-year loan, compared with a 24% stake on the 30-year.

"This product may also offer a way to enter the market with lower monthly payments, and in many cases, provide a better long-term outcome than renting. But they would require a clear strategy to refinance or sell once the home appreciates in value," says Yun.

"Longer loan terms do not address the true cause of today’s affordability challenges, which is the limited supply of homes in the low- and middle-price ranges," the economist adds.

Would a 50-year mortgage drive home prices up?

Housing economists fear that one unintentional effect of a 50-year mortgage would be to raise home prices overall, wiping out the purported benefits.

"The 'savings' from 50-year mortgages may be totally negated by rising home prices," says Berner.

That's because, all else being equal, the impact of a 50-year loan would be to raise the price point at which the typical buyer could afford to make monthly mortgage payments.

"The design of this proposal is to boost homebuyer demand, which has been subdued for the last several years as mortgage rates have been stuck above 6%," says Berner. "More flexible financing is essentially a subsidy for housing demand, which will add to the pool and buying power of homebuyers without increasing the supply of homes, which will drive home prices up."

National median home prices continue to hover at record highs, with the typical existing single-family home selling for $426,800 in the third quarter, up 1.6% from a year ago, according to NAR data.

"This is not the best way to solve housing affordability," says Berner of the 50-year mortgage proposal. "The administration would do better to reverse tariff-induced inflation, which is keeping the rates on existing mortgages high, and to encourage the expansion of housing supply by promoting homebuilding."

Conservative backlash to 50-year mortgage

Trump's proposal quickly produced an outpouring of strong reactions, including criticism of the idea from fellow conservatives.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and staunch Trump supporter, expressed her concerns with the plan in a post on X.

"I don’t like 50 year mortgages as the solution to the housing affordability crisis," wrote Greene. "It will ultimately reward the banks, mortgage lenders, and home builders while people pay far more in interest over time and die before they ever pay off their home."

Conservative commentator Matt Walsh also slammed the idea, writing on X: "This just means your house will be owned by the bank until you die, and after. We don’t need 50 year mortgages."

On social media, support for 50-year mortgages tended to emphasize the idea that they would be a superior alternative to renting for 50 years, for those who could not otherwise afford to buy a home.

Supporters also pointed out that a 50-year mortgage could be refinanced under different terms at a later date, or paid off early, and noted that it would merely be one option for homebuyers to consider.

Pulte, Trump's top mortgage regulator, appeared to respond to conservative backlash to the plan in a social media post on Sunday.

"We hear you," he wrote. "We are laser focused on ensuring the American Dream for YOUNG PEOPLE and that can only happen on the economic level of homebuying. A 50 Year Mortgage is simply a potential weapon in a WIDE arsenal of solutions that we are developing right now. STAY TUNED!"