Trump Says He Has Brought Down Mortgage Payment Costs by Nearly $3,000 Annually

President Donald Trump has touted improvements in mortgage payment costs under his second term, as he pivots his domestic agenda to focus on addressing the affordability concerns of inflation-weary Americans.

Speaking at a rally-style event in Pennsylvania on Monday, Trump highlighted his economic agenda, blaming soaring costs on the Biden administration and declaring that "America is winning again" under his policies.

During the speech, Trump displayed a chart stating that annual total mortgage payments rose more than $14,600 during President Joe Biden's term, while falling more than $2,900 since the start of his own second term.

"We went down with our rates, they went up with their rates," Trump said. "So with us, you save $2,900—almost $3,000. And with them, you go up. It costs you $15,000. You don't hear that because the fake news doesn't tell you that."

A Realtor.com® analysis finds that the chart Trump referred to is largely accurate for newly built homes.

However, it glosses over the fact that median mortgage payments remain more than 80% higher today than at the end of Trump's first term, despite recent improvements. And using prices for previously owned homes rather than new homes, the savings under Trump drop to just $45 per month.

The Trump administration says that Biden is entirely to blame for those soaring costs, and that the president isn't done with his work to improve affordability for everyday Americans.

"Four years of disastrous economic policies under the Biden administration resulted in surging home prices, skyrocketing mortgage rates, and declining real wages," a White House official told Realtor.com.

The official said that Trump has implemented several policies to bring costs under control, including "rapid deregulation, tax cuts to boost take-home pay, and securing our border to stop the artificial and illegal demand pushing up home and rent prices.

"While more work remains to make Americans whole again following the four-year Biden disaster, President Trump will continue to work tirelessly to grow paychecks, bring down costs, and keep inflation low," the official said.

According to the official, the chart Trump showed in Pennsylvania is based on the median purchase price of newly built homes, assuming a 10% down payment and using Freddie Mac's national average mortgage rate.

The chart shows the change in typical annual mortgage payments from the start of Biden's term to the end, and from the start of Trump's second term to the latest available data.

A Realtor.com analysis using the same assumptions produces a very similar, though not identical, result, possibly due to slight differences in how mortgage rates are averaged for each period.

Using prices for existing homes, which account for the vast majority of home sales, produces a similar increase under Biden, with annual payments rising about $14,600 over his term. But the savings under Trump's second term shrink to about $540 annually, or about $45 per month.

Mortgage payments did skyrocket from the start of Biden's term to the end, as a combined result of soaring home prices and, later, surging mortgage rates.

New-home prices surged more than 20% from January 2021 to January 2025, while average mortgage rates rose from 2.74% to 6.96% over the same period.

Prices for existing homes jumped even more, rising 48% from January 2021 to January 2025. Since January 2025, annual growth in existing-home prices has been muted, averaging around 2%.

And new-home prices specifically have been trending down since late 2022, while mortgage rates have eased down to around 6.2% in recent weeks.

Trump has repeatedly vowed to bring down housing costs for Americans, including issuing an order for "emergency price relief" on the first day of his second term. And in September, he declared his intent to expand "affordable homeownership" to millions more families.

Nationally, rents have fallen about 1.4% in 2025, after sinking 0.4% in 2024, according to a recent Realtor.com analysis. But home prices remain at record highs, keeping affordability for homebuyers near multidecade lows.

While Trump has implemented some policies that could help bring down housing costs, including exploring the release of federal land for housing construction, Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale says it is likely still too early to see an impact on the housing market.

"Presidential terms are long, and their impact on the economy doesn't necessarily start and stop exactly as the administrations change over, which can make it easy to use the data to make a favorable case, but harder to prove that credit is really due to the change in president," she says.