Trump Nominates New Head for Federal Housing Administration

The White House has picked a familiar mortgage expert to lead the Federal Housing Administration.

The Trump administration nominated Matt Jones to head FHA and serve as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Jones would require Senate confirmation to serve permanently. He'd replace Frank Cassidy, who told Realtor.com® his successor must cut red tape.

Jones is currently deputy assistant secretary for Single Family Housing at HUD, where he's been involved in a number of its major initiatives. That includes modernizing HUD codes for manufactured housing, overhauling FHA's single-family mortgage insurance program. He also oversees HUD's insurance-in-force portfolio of 8 million loans with a principal balance of more than $1.6 trillion.

Before HUD, Jones was associate vice president for Government Housing Finance at the Mortgage Bankers Association. He has experience both in industry and politics, having started his career as a mortgage loan originator at Amerifirst Home Mortgage in Michigan. Jones rose to senior advisor for capital markets there from 2017 to 2021.

He also spent time as counsel at Senate Banking Committee and Senate Finance Committee, helping to draft and negotiate legislation.

His nomination garnered support from MBA, the National Association of Realtors, the National Housing Conference, and the National Council of State Housing Agencies.

"Matt brings an impressive combination of hands-on mortgage industry experience, deep knowledge of government housing finance, and a strong understanding of how FHA programs can better serve homebuyers, renters, and lenders," MBA President and CEO Bob Broeksmit said in a statement.

Modernization for FHA

Jones has advocated for reducing regulatory burdens in order to encourage more financial institutions into the housing space. Speaking at a housing summit hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center in June, he said the HUD needs to make it easier for financial institutions of all sizes to be FHA lenders, including large banks, community banks, and credit unions.

Joe Gormley, who was Jones' predecessor in his current HUD role, is currently acting head of FHA.

Jones also said removing the chassis requirements, which happened in the 21st Century Road to Housing Act that has since become law, could be transformational. Opening that kind of housing to new financing could "completely transform the ability to build housing supply."

That kind of experience is important in the space and with Washington's increased eye on housing. NCSHA, whose members work extensively with FHA's single-family and multifamily insurance programs, cited the experience in supporting him for the role.

"Matt Jones has the deep policy expertise and mortgage industry experience required to lead FHA at this critical time for the agency and the U.S. housing market,” NCSHA executive director Stockton Williams said in a statement. “We have worked closely with Matt in his prior roles and look forward to continuing with him in his new one, which we urge the Senate to approve as soon as possible.”