Serving NW Oregon and SW Washington
What Is a Portable Mortgage?
A portable mortgage is a home loan that can move from one property to another while staying with the same borrower. That is very different from the way most U.S. mortgages work today.
Under the normal system, your mortgage is secured by a specific property. When you sell that home, the mortgage is usually paid off at closing. If you buy another house, you apply for a new mortgage using the rates and lending rules available at that time. Even if you have made every payment on time for ten years, the old rate generally does not follow you to the next property.
A portable mortgage changes that setup. Instead of ending the original loan when the house is sold, certain parts of the loan could move to the next property. Under the MOVE Act, those parts would include the interest rate, loan terms, and remaining balance.
For example, imagine a homeowner still owes $280,000 on a mortgage with a 3.25% rate. If that mortgage qualified for portability, the goal would be to let the homeowner move that $280,000 loan to the next house instead of paying it off and borrowing the same amount again at current rates. The borrower stays the same, but the property securing the loan changes.
That does not mean the homeowner automatically gets enough financing to buy any house they want. If the next home costs much more, they may still need cash from their sale or additional financing. This is one of several areas where the current bill leaves important questions unanswered.
What Does the MOVE Act Actually Say?
The MOVE Act is H.R. 10028. Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. of New Jersey introduced it on August 3, 2026, and it was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services. As of August 28, 2026, the bill has not passed the House or Senate and has not been signed into law.
The bill itself is surprisingly short. Its main purpose is to require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin purchasing and securitizing certain conventional mortgages that allow borrowers to transfer their mortgage rate, terms, and remaining balance to another property.
That part matters because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sit at the center of the U.S. mortgage market. Lenders need somewhere to sell many of the mortgages they make. If Fannie and Freddie are willing to purchase portable mortgages, lenders would have a much easier path to offering them on a larger scale.
The bill also says the transfer would need to happen within 90 days after the original property is sold. That creates a basic framework, but it does not explain every part of the process. For example, the bill does not explain exactly how the loan would be handled between the sale of the first property and the purchase of the next one.
The Lender Still Has a Role
One part of the bill has been easy to miss in early coverage. H.R. 10028 describes mortgages where the borrower is permitted by the mortgagee to transfer the loan. In simpler terms, the lender or mortgage holder still has to allow the transfer.
The bill does not say that every lender must make every mortgage portable. It also does not say that every mortgage already in existence would suddenly gain this feature. Instead, it tells Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to support mortgages that are designed to allow portability.
That may sound like a small difference, but it changes how homeowners should look at the proposal. The MOVE Act is better understood as an attempt to create the financial system needed for portable mortgages, rather than a law that simply turns every current mortgage into one.
The 180-Day Timeline Has Not Started
Another number showing up in coverage of the MOVE Act is 180 days. The bill says Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have to begin purchasing qualifying portable mortgages no later than 180 days after the law is enacted.
The key words are after the law is enacted.
Since H.R. 10028 has not become law, that clock has not started. There is currently no date when portable mortgages are scheduled to become available under this bill.
Would the MOVE Act Let Me Keep My 3% Mortgage?
This is probably the biggest question homeowners have, and the answer is more complicated than some headlines suggest.
The MOVE Act is clearly built around the idea of letting a borrower keep the rate, balance, and terms of a portable mortgage when moving to another property. However, the current bill does not say that someone who already has a 3% mortgage from 2020 or 2021 will automatically be allowed to move it.
There is nothing in the bill requiring lenders to rewrite every existing mortgage contract. It also does not give homeowners a new legal right to demand that their current lender make an old loan portable.
Future regulations or amendments could answer that question differently. Congress could also expand the proposal later. But based on the bill as it is written today, homeowners should not assume that their existing low-rate mortgage will become portable.
That distinction is important because it separates what the MOVE Act actually says from what many homeowners understandably hope it will do.
Why Portable Mortgages Are Getting So Much Attention
The reason this idea has returned is something economists call mortgage rate lock-in. It happens when a homeowner has a mortgage rate far below the rate available on a new loan.
Imagine a family that bought a home several years ago with a 3.5% mortgage. They now need another bedroom and could afford a larger house based on their income and equity. The problem is that selling would mean giving up the 3.5% loan and taking out a new mortgage at a much higher rate. The payment difference can be large enough to make staying put the better financial choice.
Research from the Federal Housing Finance Agency found a strong connection between this rate gap and homeowners deciding not to sell. FHFA researchers estimated that for every percentage point that current mortgage rates rose above a homeowner’s existing rate, the chance of that homeowner selling fell by about 18.1%. Their research also found that mortgage lock-in kept a large number of homes from changing hands
FHFA mortgage rate lock-in research
This does not mean every homeowner with a low rate wants to move. Many people are happy exactly where they are. But it helps explain why some homeowners with large amounts of equity are still reluctant to list their properties.
For a closer look at what buyers and sellers are seeing locally, see my Portland Real Estate Market Update 2026
What Happens If the Next Home Costs More?
This may be the biggest practical problem a portable mortgage system would have to solve.
Suppose a homeowner owes $300,000 on a low-rate mortgage but wants to buy a $600,000 home. Moving the existing mortgage would preserve the rate on that $300,000 balance, but it would not turn the loan into a $600,000 mortgage.
The homeowner could use money from the sale of the first home toward the difference. If their equity is not enough, however, they would still need additional financing. That could mean another mortgage or some other loan structure.
Researchers at the Urban Institute have pointed to this issue as one of the challenges facing portable mortgages. A successful system may need a reliable way for homeowners to borrow additional money while keeping the original portable loan in place. Urban Institute portable mortgage analysis
The MOVE Act does not spell out how this would work. It does not set the interest rate on additional financing, explain lien position, or provide detailed underwriting rules. Those are the kinds of issues that would likely need to be addressed before portable mortgages could work on a large scale.
Would Portable Mortgages Put More Homes on the Market?
They could help, but it is important to separate more homes for sale from more homes being built.
A homeowner who has been waiting because of a low mortgage rate might decide to sell if that loan could follow them. That could bring another listing onto the market and make it easier for another buyer to find a home.
At the same time, that seller will often become a buyer. They may list one Portland home and then start looking for another Portland home. The transaction adds inventory, but it does not create another house.
That is why portable mortgages could improve movement within the housing market without solving the larger shortage of housing in many parts of the country. They may help people move more easily. They do not replace the need for more homes.
Portable Mortgage vs. Assumable Mortgage
Portable and assumable mortgages are often confused, but they work in almost opposite ways.
With a portable mortgage, the borrower stays the same and the property changes. The homeowner takes the mortgage with them.
With an assumable mortgage, the property stays the same and the borrower changes. A new buyer may qualify to take over the seller’s existing loan.
Some FHA and VA mortgages can already be assumed under certain rules. That can be valuable when the mortgage has a much lower rate than current loans, but the original homeowner does not get to take that mortgage to their next house.
The MOVE Act is about the other concept: allowing the mortgage to follow the borrower.
ANOTHER PORTABLE MORTGAGE BILL IS ALREADY IN CONGRESS
The MOVE Act is not the only proposal looking at this idea.
Rep. Tom Barrett introduced H.R. 7754, the Take Your Rate Act of 2026, in March. Instead of immediately creating a market for portable loans, that bill would require federal agencies to study how mortgage portability could work.
The study would look at issues such as cost, risk to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, market effects, regulatory changes, and how many borrowers might benefit. It would also examine whether the federal government should test portable mortgages on a smaller scale first. H.R. 7754
The difference between the two bills is interesting. The Take Your Rate Act largely says, “study this first.” The MOVE Act goes further and tells Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin supporting qualifying portable mortgages if the bill becomes law.
Neither proposal is law today.
What Does This Mean for Oregon Homeowners Right Now?
For Oregon homeowners, the most important point is that nothing has changed yet.
If you sell a Portland-area home today, your mortgage will normally be paid off through closing. If you buy another property, you will generally need to obtain financing under the mortgage rates and lending rules available at that time.
That does not mean homeowners with low rates should automatically decide against moving. Mortgage rate is only one part of the decision. Equity, sale proceeds, housing needs, monthly payment, taxes, maintenance, and long-term plans all matter.
If you are considering selling, my Oregon Seller Closing Costs Guide explains some of the expenses that can affect how much money remains after closing.
The Bottom Line
Portable mortgages could address a real problem in the housing market. Millions of homeowners have mortgage rates far below what they could get today, and losing those loans can make moving much harder.
The MOVE Act proposes a way to change that. It would push Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to support qualifying conventional mortgages that allow the interest rate, terms, and remaining balance to move with the borrower to another property.
But the idea is still at the proposal stage. The bill does not make portable mortgages available today, does not automatically convert existing mortgages, and does not answer every question about underwriting, property values, additional borrowing, or the 90-day transfer process.
Those missing details do not make the proposal meaningless. They simply mean we are still early.
For homeowners, the best approach is to watch what Congress does next without making financial decisions based on rules that do not exist yet. I will update this page as H.R. 10028 moves through Congress and more details become available.
Request a Private Seller Net Sheet
Send me your property address and a rough mortgage balance. I will prepare an estimate and walk you through the main costs in plain language.
This article provides general information and is not legal, lending, or tax advice. Costs and contract terms can change by property and transaction.
