Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner provided a vague response when asked about the recent proposal of 50-year mortgages for housing, merely saying it is one of several ideas still “on the table.”
The Trump administration revealed last month that it is “working on” the lengthy mortgage term as a way of addressing housing affordability in the United States. But the proposal was quickly met with skepticism from Republicans, who argued it would only lead to homeowners paying more interest and would not expand homeownership.
Fox News’s Griff Jenkins asked Turner about the proposal and the other ideas he would share with President Donald Trump to address housing, to which Turner spoke about the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Turner said this is a “step” toward addressing the cost of housing, in which there are “a myriad of ideas” to be given to the president.
Jenkins again pressed Turner about the 50-year mortgage proposal and the concerns about it. The HUD secretary responded that the effectiveness of the idea has “yet to be seen.”
“It’s very early. I think more research needs to be done on a 50-year mortgage and the other ideas that have been put forth,” Turner said on Fox News’s Fox & Friends Weekend. “So the 50-year mortgage and other ideas that have been circulated through the public are being discussed, are on the table, but at the end of the day, the president and the other leaders in the administration will discuss what’s the best possible path, secure path, to help the American people to afford a home.”
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Dr. Gary Wolfram, director of economics at Hillsdale College, previously told the Washington Examiner the Trump administration would be better off trying to bring down prices by spurring the development of more housing. The 50-year proposal, meanwhile, will only make the situation worse, as it will “drive up housing prices” due to low supply.
E.J. Antoni, chief economist for the Heritage Foundation, shared this sentiment, suggesting Trump’s proposal holds an underlying problem “of a fundamental mismatch of supply and demand.”
