Credit expert ‘mortified’ by Trump administration’s 50-year mortgage plan
Micah Abigail LLC founder and @fitcreditdoctor Micah Smith speaks to Fox News Digital about why she’s largely against the implementation of a 50-year mortgage rate.
When the Trump administration floated the idea of a 50-year mortgage, credit solutions expert Micah Smith didn’t mince words.
“I was mortified,” she told Fox News Digital.
On paper, stretching a home loan over half a century promises lower monthly payments. In reality, Smith warns, it could trap millions of Americans — especially retirees and first-time buyers — in what she calls a “risky” deal that’s “one market shift away from being completely and totally underwater.”
“My fear is that the 50-year mortgage is going to attract the unsavvy consumer, and someone who doesn’t understand how finances work and how interest works,” Smith said. “If you are in a 50-year mortgage, it’s going to take you four times as long to build the equity in the home.”
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“It’s going to attract a consumer that’s already struggling,” she added. “There’s going to be an even larger disparity, once again, between the wealthy and the poor. And I think the disparity is going to get even bigger with this 50-year mortgage.”
Is a 50-year mortgage a lifetime “sentence”? Credit solutions expert Micah Smith talks to Fox News Digital about the risks of the potential new loan. (Getty Images)
In early November, President Donald Trump and administration officials signaled plans to develop a 50-year mortgage they believe could expand access to homeownership. Trump posted on Truth Social with a graphic showing “Great American Presidents,” including Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal housing reforms helped pave the way for the modern 30-year mortgage, and himself, suggesting he will develop a 50-year version.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte added in a post on X that, “Thanks to President Trump, we are indeed working on The 50 year Mortgage – a complete game changer.”
Under current rules, mortgages longer than 30 years generally do not qualify as “Qualified Mortgages” under the CFPB’s Ability-to-Repay rule, and FHA and GSEs currently allow 40-year terms only for loan modifications.
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A UBS analysis found that a 50-year mortgage results in total interest payments equal to roughly 225% of the home’s price – more than twice the level under a 30-year loan. UBS also noted that with a 50-year term, borrowers would have paid down only about 11% of the principal after 20 years, highlighting how slowly equity builds over such an extended period.
“The people that are going to be helped are going to be the people who have a plan… a substantial plan for higher income coming down the line,” Smith said, noting that those hurt most…
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