Why Subsidizing Boomers to Downsize Might Actually Work

The Trump administration is floating an idea that sounds intuitive to a lot of people: portable mortgages . The concept is that when you sell your house and buy a new one, you could transfer your existing mortgage, including your interest rate, to the new property. To many homeowners, this seems obvious. It’s your loan, you’ve been making payments reliably, why shouldn’t you be able to take it with you when you move?

But there’s a reason this doesn’t exist in the United States. Mortgages are secured by specific properties . The bank lent you money to buy a particular house, and that house serves as collateral. If you default, they foreclose on that specific property. The entire mortgage finance system—including the secondary mar

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