Trump Accounts are just the beginning. Young Americans need a path to homeownership

In March of last year, my daughter Margot was born, and like any new father, I found myself thinking about the opportunities that would shape her future. I recently enrolled her in a Trump Account, President Donald Trump's initiative to help American children begin building wealth from an early age. With a $1,000 federal contribution for eligible children born between 2025 and 2028, the program gives the next generation an opportunity to benefit from decades of investment growth.

As President Trump's former Federal Housing Administration commissioner, I also believe Trump Accounts should be just the beginning for how we can help young Americans build lasting wealth. In particular, I think we are at a pivotal point in American history to enact new policies to help generations of families achieve financial independence through owning their first home.

At 20 years old, I purchased my first house for $200,000 using an FHA-insured mortgage that required just 3.5% down, or $7,000. I also benefited from an $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit. Today, that property has more than doubled in value. Yet I worry that the path to homeownership is becoming increasingly difficult for Margot’s generation. According to the National Association of Realtors, first-time buyers now account for just 21% of home purchases, the lowest share on record since tracking began in 1981.

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The natural next step after the president’s creation of Trump Accounts for young children is to help this same generation achieve the dream of homeownership. I believe this new policy should be called a Trump Mortgage program, which can be a national initiative designed to help qualified first-time homebuyers secure mortgage rates one to one-and-a-half percentage points below prevailing market rates.

Here’s how we can develop the policy for the Trump Mortgage: First, the Treasury, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can immediately purchase the mortgage bonds backed by qualifying first-time homebuyer mortgages. The objective would be to facilitate the financing of these mortgages at lower rates using the secondary bond market, similar to a strategy already being deployed by Secretary Bessent and FHFA Director Pulte.

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The government should then hold onto these bonds while interest rates remain elevated and sell them when rates decline. It is important to note that this program won’t provide free money as Treasury, Fannie and Freddie are already in the business of buying mortgage-backed securities. Any program would have clear limits on its size, funding costs, prepayment risk and taxpayer exposure.

Next, Congress should expand the use of existing tax-exempt mortgage financing. This isn’t some untested financial innovation. State housing finance agencies have been issuing tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds for decades. Since investors generally accept lower yields when interest is exempt from federal income tax, eligible borrowers can benefit from lower mortgage rates.

Congress already has bipartisan legislation proposed to expand the capacity of these programs. We should build on that existing model and explore whether a broader first-time homebuyer initiative like the Trump Mortgage program makes sense.

Consider a young couple purchasing a $350,000 home with a $330,000 30-year mortgage. At a 6.5% interest rate, their monthly principal and interest payment would be approximately $2,086, but reducing that rate to 5% would lower the payment to roughly $1,772. For a family balancing childcare, groceries and the everyday expenses of raising children, saving more than $300 every month and $100,000 over the life of the loan that could be the difference between continuing to rent and finally purchasing a home.

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Of course, lower mortgage rates alone will not solve America's housing shortage, and expanding access to financing must go hand in hand with policies that make it easier to build more homes. During my tenure leading the FHA, I saw firsthand how thoughtful reforms could reduce costs, improve efficiency and expand access to homeownership without abandoning responsible lending standards.

When I purchased my first home, I never imagined where that opportunity would lead. Today, as I think about Margot's future, I hope she will inherit a country where buying a first home is a realistic milestone rather than a distant aspiration. President Trump has given her generation a head start on building wealth with Trump Accounts, and now we have an opportunity to help turn those early investments into achieving the American Dream with the Trump Mortgage.