Trump administration is ‘evaluating’ portable mortgages. What that means for homeowners.

What is a portable mortgage? It’s when you sell your house and buy a new place, but you keep your old home loan. If you’ve locked in a low mortgage rate and want to move, imagine the low-rate mortgage moving with you. The big question about portable mortgages is: Are they too good to be true?

Porting a mortgage allows you to keep your existing loan terms and interest rate when you buy another house, rather than getting a new loan that may have a higher interest rate. Portable mortgages are available in Canada and the United Kingdom, but not in the U.S.

Canadian and UK borrowers typically have fixed-rate loans with terms lasting only two to five years. That’s vastly different from the 15- and 30-year terms in the U.S. At the end of those short-term loans, homeowners in Canada and the UK can either pay off their mortgages in full or renew them and negotiate new terms.

The shorter loan terms in Canada and the UK lend themselves to portability because borrowers can’t lock in an interest rate for decades.

The structure of the U.S. housing industry requires that a loan be paid off when a property is sold. That’s because lending in America is primarily funded by mortgage-backed securities (MBS). MBS are bundled loans, with each mortgage tied to an individual property.

That generally disallows the concept of moving a mortgage from one property to another.

Could mortgage portability in the U.S. become a possibility in the future? Advocates argue that portable mortgages might help unlock the current housing market. Existing homeowners could move and retain their low mortgage rate, allowing new buyers to secure new loans. Aging owners could downsize their homes. Young families could upgrade. Houses could change hands.

The state of Maine floated mortgage portability legislation in early 2025 in an effort to “promote housing affordability.” However, since Maine cannot single-handedly reinvent the housing finance industry, the bill died after a committee hearing.

The Trump administration is considering housing affordability measures, ranging from 50-year mortgages to an expansion of assumable mortgages. It’s now “actively evaluating” portable mortgages, according to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte.

It would take just that: The president and an act of Congress to construct a new infrastructure of U.S. home lending to accommodate portable mortgages.

Moving the portability legislation through Congress might take a year or two — and only if there is bipartisan support for such a measure.

Additionally, the impact on mortgage-backed securities markets would need to be considered, as homeowners would be allowed to hold a low-rate mortgage for decades.

Here are some loan choices to consider if you need to move in the current housing market:

• Look for an assumable mortgage on a home currently for sale. Properties financed with FHA, VA, or USDA loans may have assumable loans. You pay the current owner a lump sum for their equity, and with lender approval, take over their mortgage.

• Use a bridge loan. This is a short-term loan, typically lasting between three and 12 months, that allows you to buy a home before selling yours. It’s especially beneficial if you can’t cover the down payment on your new place without selling your existing house. Rocket Mortgage, CrossCountry Mortgage, and Guild Mortgage currently offer bridge loans.

• Seek a rate buydown. If you’re buying a new construction home, some builders will offer incentives such as an interest rate buydown. That discounts your mortgage rate for the first year or two, and then converts to a market rate. If you’re looking to buy an existing home, some lenders, such as New American Funding, Guild Mortgage, and CrossCountry Mortgage, are currently offering rate buydowns.

Laura Grace Tarpley edited this article.