Could you keep your mortgage rate when you sell? What the bill says, and what it doesn’t.

What it is
The Making Ownership Viable for Everyone Act was introduced August 3, 2026 by Rep. Thomas H. Kean Jr. (R-NJ) and referred to the House Financial Services Committee. It would require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin purchasing and securitizing portable mortgages within 180 days of becoming law.

How a portable mortgage would work

  1. You sell your current home.
  2. Your lender allows you to transfer your existing interest rate, terms, and balance to a new property.
  3. The transfer must happen within 90 days of the sale.

What it does not do

  • It is not law. It has not passed the House or the Senate. No lender can offer a portable conventional loan under this framework today.
  • It does not require any lender to offer the product. Individual lenders would still decide.
  • It covers conventional loans only. FHA, VA and USDA loans are already assumable, which is a different mechanism: a buyer takes over your loan.

Questions the bill leaves open

  • How a higher purchase price gets financed above the ported balance.
  • How investors would price low-rate loans attached to a new property.

Why it matters in Hampton Roads
Military families relocating on orders don’t choose their timeline. Move-up sellers in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk and Suffolk tell me every week they’d move if they could keep their rate. Portability speaks to both.

How to make your voice count

  1. Find your U.S. Representative at house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative.
  2. Send the sample letter (below) through their website contact form. Cite H.R. 10028 and add two sentences about your own situation.
  3. Ask your lender whether they would offer a portable loan if it became available.

Track the bill: congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/10028

If you’re weighing a move now
Don’t plan around this bill. Call me and we’ll work through your numbers at today’s rates.

 

Letter to Your Representative

Send through your Representative’s website contact form or by mail. Include your home address so the office can confirm you’re a constituent. Replace the brackets and delete the options that don’t apply.

Subject: Please cosponsor H.R. 10028, the MOVE Act

The Honorable [Representative’s Full Name]
[Office address, or “via website contact form”]

Dear Representative [Last Name],

I am a constituent from [city], [state], writing to ask you to cosponsor H.R. 10028, the Making Ownership Viable for Everyone Act, and to support its consideration by the House Financial Services Committee.

The bill would require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin purchasing and securitizing portable mortgages, allowing a homeowner to transfer their existing rate, terms, and balance to a new home within 90 days of selling.

[Choose one and personalize:]

  • I own a home with a [X]% mortgage rate. My [family has outgrown it / job requires a move / I want to downsize], but selling would mean giving up a rate I cannot replace.
  • My family is relocating under military orders. We did not choose the timing, and the loss of our rate is a real financial cost.
  • I am a buyer, and I see fewer homes for sale in [city] because owners cannot afford to give up their current rate.

Portable mortgages would help families move when their lives require it, and would put more homes on the market in our community.

Please let me know your position on H.R. 10028. I would welcome a reply.

Respectfully,
[Full name]
[Home address]
[Phone or email]

 

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Chris Faircloth | The Agent Faircloth Team at Swell Realty Co.
757.288.0983 | agentfaircloth.com | @AgentFairclothVB
Proposed legislation as of September 2026. This is general information, not lending or legal advice.