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US President Donald Trump said he was directing the purchase of $200 billion in mortgage bonds, which he cast as his latest effort to bring down housing costs ahead of the November midterm election.
Trump announced the move on Thursday in a social media post. The director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, said soon after that the president aims for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to execute the purchases.
“This will drive Mortgage Rates DOWN, monthly payments DOWN, and make the cost of owning a home more affordable,” Trump wrote in his post.
He added that his decision not to sell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during his first term allowed them to amass “$200 BILLION DOLLARS IN CASH” and that he was making his announcement “because of that.”
“It is one of my many steps in restoring Affordability, something that the Biden Administration absolutely destroyed,” the president said. Mortgage backed securities rallied relative to Treasuries on the news.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have added billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities and home loans to their balance sheets in recent months, fueling speculation that they’re trying to push down lending rates and boost their profitability ahead of a potential public offering.
Today's show features:
- Conor Sen, Bloomberg Opinion columnist and Founder of Peachtree Creek Investments, on his latest column about President Donald Trump's proposal to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes
- Bloomberg Economics US and Canada Economist Stuart Paul on Thursday’s jobs data and what to expect from Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report and Alli McCartney, Managing Director of Wealth Management with Alignment Partners at UBS, on key market indicators to watch in early 2026
- David Woo, Macro Strategist and former Bank of America Head of Global Interest Rates, Foreign Exchange, Emerging Markets Fixed Income Strategy & Economics Research
- Bloomberg News Technology Reporter Alexandra Levine on what appears to be the end of the effort to ban TikTok in the US with a sale to American investors
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