Invest1 publisher3 min readPublished
Five housing groups endorsed the FHA nominee whose agency sets the premium they want cut
Matt Jones went to the Senate on Sept. 14 with backing from the Mortgage Bankers Association, where he ran government housing finance until March 2025, and from the private insurers who sell against FHA.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- The White House sent Matt Jones's nomination as HUD assistant secretary and FHA commissioner to the Senate on Sept. 14, promoting the department's own deputy assistant secretary for single-family housing.
- Jones spent just over two years as the Mortgage Bankers Association's associate vice president of government housing finance, his second stint at the trade group, before joining HUD in March 2025.
- The commissioner's post has been open since June, when Frank Cassidy, named to the full-time job in August 2025 after serving as acting commissioner, said he was returning to the private sector.
- Five organizations backed him publicly: the MBA, the Community Home Lenders of America, the National Housing Conference, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers and US Mortgage Insurers.
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Why it matters
- decision Confirmation would put FHA's pricing in the hands of a former MBA executive, and the Senate controls the timing; two of the five supporting groups asked it to act promptly.
- constraint By Dworkin's framing, premium relief is bounded by the insurance fund's strength, so lenders cannot have the full cut and the full cushion at the same time.
- exposure Private mortgage insurers sell the conforming alternative to FHA coverage, so wherever Jones sets the premium lands inside their own pricing.
- capability A confirmed commissioner ends the acting arrangement and, per Dworkin, lets Joe Gormley go back to being president of Ginnie Mae full time.
The money in this nomination sits in one line, the FHA mortgage insurance premium. Industry groups told American Banker they support the changes HUD Secretary Scott Turner has made and are still looking for reductions in the premium [14]. If the Senate confirms him, Jones is the official who sets it [1].
David Dworkin, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference, framed the trade-off. "I'm confident that Matt's going to find the right balance between maintaining the strength of the fund and ensuring that the MIP isn't unnecessarily high," Dworkin said [13]. He also called Jones uniquely qualified and one of the strongest appointments he has seen [12]. American Banker's account does not give the premium's current level or the fund's capital position, so the size of what lenders are asking for is not on the record.
US Mortgage Insurers, whose members provide a conforming market alternative to FHA, backed him as well [16]. "His experience in the U.S. Senate, in the mortgage industry and in senior roles at HUD prepares him well for this important position, and we urge the Senate to act quickly on his confirmation," USMI President Seth Appleton said [17]. If the premium comes down, the price comparison that moves some borrowers to private coverage tightens.
Jones's route to the seat ran through the same product each time. He was senior counsel to the Senate Committee on Finance and to the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, then senior advisor, capital markets at Amerifirst Home Mortgage [6][5]. The MBA job ran just over two years and ended when he joined HUD in March 2025, which puts its start in early 2023 [4][3][4]. MBA President and CEO Bob Broeksmit said Jones's "previous leadership of MBA's government housing finance portfolio and current role overseeing FHA's single-family operations provide him with valuable perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing the agency" [10].
Frank Cassidy's run in the confirmed job lasted about ten months, part of it on a leave of absence, and the seat has been open roughly three months since [7][2][3].
There is a version of this where the premium does not move at all. NAMB President Kimber White listed process items, including "FHA underwriting and appraisal modernization, condo project approval reform and reducing regulatory burdens that raise costs for borrowers without improving safety or soundness" [15]. If the term goes to those and the premium stays where Cassidy left it, then the endorsements bought lenders a commissioner who knows their operations and no price relief. Given that a lower premium is the trade groups' standing ask [14], I would expect some of it inside the first year, with the fund's strength setting the ceiling.
What to watch
- Whether Senate Banking schedules a hearing, and how quickly, after CHLA and USMI both asked for speed.
- Any move in the FHA annual mortgage insurance premium once a commissioner is confirmed, and what HUD publishes about the fund's strength alongside it.
- Whether the first policy items out of FHA are NAMB's process asks on underwriting, appraisal and condo approvals instead of pricing.