Unpacking Trump’s 50-Year Mortgage Proposal

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

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Summary

When President Trump proposed the introduction of a 50-year mortgage, he challenged a bedrock of the American housing market and financial system. He also revealed how desperate the administration is to lower prices for consumers. Conor Dougherty, who covers housing and development, explains what’s attractive about the idea and its potential drawbacks — and why housing affordability is such an intractable problem.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From New York Times, I'm Michael Bobaro. This is the Daily.
0:09.0	A few days ago, when President Trump proposed the introduction of a 50-year mortgage,
0:15.9	he challenged a bedrock of the American housing market and financial system.
0:27.5	But above all, he revealed just how desperate he is to lower prices for consumers and how willing he is to embrace radical solutions to do so.
0:34.9	It's Monday, November 17th.
0:42.3	Democrats had a clean sweep around the country on Tuesday. It was a resounding demand for relief from the rising cost of living in an off-year election.
0:54.8	In the final analysis, the message from the elections two weeks ago in New Jersey, Virginia,
1:00.2	and New York was exceptionally clear. The country is unaffordable.
1:05.1	People's groceries and bills are still high. They're still dealing with inflation.
1:08.6	They're suffering. Focus on domestic policy and on making people's lives better.
1:14.4	Everyone embraced that message, except...
1:17.8	Our energy costs are way down.
1:19.4	Our groceries are way down.
1:20.9	Everything is way down.
1:22.1	For President Trump.
1:23.3	So I don't want to hear about the affordability.
1:26.2	Who initially dismissed it, much to the consternation of his fellow Republicans.
1:31.7	The president says there's virtually no inflation and that grocery prices are going down.
1:36.1	Do you agree with him on that?
1:38.4	No, I go to the grocery store myself.
1:41.2	Grocery prices remain high.
1:43.1	Energy prices are high. So affordability is a problem.
	...

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