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New York, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Lower interest rates would likely eliminate the need for a 50-year mortgage floated by President Donald Trump’s administration to boost housing affordability, Joseph Lavorgna, a counselor to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, told Reuters NEXT on Wednesday.
Lavorgna said that the idea of a 50-year mortgage was not necessarily officially off the table, but noted that it was a proposal from the Federal Housing Finance Agency to try to lower monthly mortgage payments. The problem with the housing market is that interest rates are too high because of the Federal Reserve’s cautious approach to lowering them, he added.
“We won’t need a 50-year mortgage if the Fed was lowering its rates, which I think it will,” Lavorgna said, “But it’s been, I think, very slow and uneven on that score.”
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
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