Mortgage Payments Down About $260 Under Trump: Report

CNN on Friday acknowledged a major improvement in housing affordability under President Donald J. Trump, reporting that the average monthly mortgage payment has dropped by roughly $260 since Trump took office one year ago — a striking data point highlighted by a network typically hostile to the administration.

During a business segment, CNN reporter Matt Egan broke down the numbers by comparing the cost of purchasing a $500,000 home with a 20 percent down payment in January 2025 versus today.

At the start of 2025, the monthly mortgage payment stood at $2,672. Today, that figure has fallen to $2,414 — a reduction of about $260 per month.

Over the course of a single year, Egan explained, that decrease amounts to roughly $3,000 in savings on interest alone. Over the life of a standard mortgage, the difference is even more dramatic, totaling approximately $90,000.

“That’s huge. That’s less money going to the bank, and more for everything else,” Egan said.

Egan credited several Trump administration policies for the downward pressure on mortgage rates, including the president’s recent announcement that the federal government would direct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase roughly $200 billion in home mortgages.

Those government-sponsored enterprises buy loans from lenders, bundle them into mortgage-backed securities, and sell them to investors — a process that replenishes capital for lenders and helps keep borrowing costs lower for homebuyers.

Cooling inflation has also played a role. The Consumer Price Index rose just 2.6 percent last month, easing pressure on household budgets and allowing the Federal Reserve to cut the rate it charges banks — a move that influences the prime lending rate passed on to consumers.

Beyond interest rates, home prices themselves have declined over the past year, a shift the White House has linked to the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement of immigration law. As millions of illegal immigrants have been removed from the country, housing demand has eased in many high-migration areas.

In a social media post, the White House said home listing prices declined year over year in 14 of the 20 metro areas with the largest illegal migrant populations. The administration noted that the three metro areas that saw modest price increases were all sanctuary cities.

Some of the steepest price drops were recorded in border states, including Texas, Arizona, and California. Realtor.com reported the largest year-over-year declines in Tampa, Phoenix, Dallas, Miami, and San Diego.

By contrast, the biggest price increases occurred in Minneapolis, Cleveland, Boston, New York City, and Chicago.

The positive economic news follows additional cost-of-living announcements from President Trump. In December, the president said Americans will soon see lower prescription drug prices after his administration reached agreements with nine major pharmaceutical companies.

Trump announced the deals at a White House event attended by executives from what he described as nine of the world’s largest drug manufacturers. Under the agreements, companies will offer several flagship medications to U.S. consumers at discounted “most favored nation” prices, Mediaite reported.

The pricing model would match the lowest price paid for the same drugs anywhere in the world.

“In other words, whatever the drug sells for in the world, whatever the lowest number is, we will match that price,” Trump said on Friday.

The president said Americans have long been forced to pay prices sometimes ten times higher than those charged overseas. He added that his administration has already announced similar reductions in recent months, including for weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, and said the newly discounted medications include treatments for diabetes, asthma, and blood thinning.

Trump acknowledged that negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies were difficult but said executives ultimately admitted their pricing practices were unfair.

According to Bloomberg, the administration secured the agreements in exchange for a three-year reprieve from potential tariffs on pharmaceutical products.

While the White House has not yet released full details on implementation or timing, Trump made clear the broader message behind the move.

Americans, he said, have been subsidizing cheaper drug prices for the rest of the world for years.

“We are not doing it anymore,” Trump said.