You cannot transfer your mortgage interest rate to a new home in the United States. Nearly every US mortgage contains a due-on-sale clause that requires the full loan balance to be paid off when you sell, so when you buy your next house you take out a new loan at whatever rate the market is offering that day. Mortgage portability, which is common in Canada and the United Kingdom, is not a feature of the US market. The closest workaround is buying a home that already carries an assumable FHA or VA loan.
Why Your Rate Doesn’t Follow You
Federal law lets lenders include a provision that makes the entire outstanding balance immediately payable if the property securing the loan is sold or transferred without the lender’s written consent.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 US Code 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions That authority preempts any state law that might otherwise restrict a lender from calling the loan due, and it is written into virtually every conventional mortgage.
There is a structural reason the industry insists on it. Conventional loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are bundled into mortgage-backed securities and sold to investors. The collateral behind each loan is a specific property, and swapping in a different property mid-stream would disrupt that securitization. The rule cannot be waived retroactively for a loan that has already been securitized. So when you sell, the old mortgage is paid off at closing and any purchase of a new home is financed from scratch.
Transfers Where Due-on-Sale Doesn’t Apply
Federal law lists specific transfers a lender cannot use to accelerate the loan, on residential properties with fewer than five units.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 US Code 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions These exemptions cover family and estate situations, not voluntary moves:
- Transfers to a spouse or children.
- Transfers resulting from a divorce decree or legal separation.
- Transfers on the death of a joint tenant or co-owner.
- Transfers to a relative after the borrower dies.
- Transfers into a living trust where the borrower stays a beneficiary and occupancy doesn’t change.
- Adding a second mortgage or home equity line, as long as occupancy rights don’t transfer.
- Leases of three years or less with no purchase option.
None of these let you carry your rate to a different property you are buying on the open market. If you’re selling one home and buying another, the due-on-sale clause applies.
Assumable FHA and VA Loans
You cannot bring your rate to a new home, but if you are shopping and find a house whose seller has an FHA or VA loan at a good rate, you may be able to take over that loan instead of getting your own. The original interest rate, remaining balance, and repayment schedule carry over to you.
FHA Assumptions
FHA-insured loans originated after December 1, 1986 are assumable with lender approval. You’ll need to meet the lender’s credit and income standards, and the lender charges a processing fee. You also have to cover the gap between the remaining loan balance and the purchase price, either in cash or with a second loan.
VA Assumptions
VA-guaranteed loans are assumable too, and you do not need to be a veteran to take one over. The person assuming the loan pays a VA funding fee of 0.5 percent of the remaining balance, though veterans who are normally exempt from the funding fee are also exempt from this one.2Veterans Benefits Administration. Circular 26-24-17 – Secondary Borrowing Requirements on Assumption Transactions There’s a warning for the seller: if a non-veteran assumes a VA loan and later defaults, the original veteran borrower’s VA entitlement may remain tied up until the loan is paid off, which can limit that veteran’s ability to use their benefit on a future purchase.
What Assumptions Actually Solve
An assumption helps the buyer of a house that has an existing low-rate loan. If you’re the one selling, it can make your listing more attractive. If you’re the one buying, it depends entirely on finding a property whose existing loan rate beats today’s market, and on having the cash or secondary financing to cover the price above the remaining balance. It is not a general substitute for portability.
How Portability Works Abroad
The reason the question comes up at all is that portability is a normal feature in some other countries. In Canada, most fixed-rate mortgages can be ported to a new property with the same lender, typically within a 30-to-120-day window covering both the sale and the purchase. Variable-rate mortgages generally cannot be ported. When the new home costs more than the remaining balance, the lender adds financing at current rates and applies a blended rate to the combined debt. When the new home costs less, the borrower pays the difference down at closing.
Nothing equivalent exists in the US market.
Is US Portability Coming
There is growing interest in the idea, driven by the rate lock-in effect. Homeowners with mortgages in the 2 to 4 percent range are reluctant to sell because a replacement loan at current rates, averaging above 6 percent in early 2026, would sharply raise their monthly payment. That reluctance holds homes off the market.
In November 2025, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency said publicly that the agency was evaluating portable mortgages. No formal proposal or rulemaking has followed. Any workable version would have to reconcile portability with the securitization structure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rely on, and existing loans could not be made portable retroactively without agreement from the investors holding the securities they sit in.
For now, the practical options for a homeowner trying to preserve a low rate when moving are limited to finding an assumable FHA or VA loan on the home you want to buy, or negotiating a seller concession that helps you buy down the rate on a new mortgage.
Your Escrow Balance When You Sell
One piece of your old mortgage does follow you, in a sense: the money in your escrow account. When your mortgage is paid off at closing, your servicer has to return any remaining escrow balance, the funds held for property taxes and insurance, within 20 business days of the final payoff.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR Part 1024 – Timely Escrow Payments and Treatment of Escrow Account Balances You’ll get a check or direct deposit for whatever was in the account.
If your new loan is with the same lender or servicer, you can agree to have that balance credited directly to the escrow account on the new loan instead of refunded to you, which reduces the upfront escrow deposit you’d need at closing.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR Part 1024 – Timely Escrow Payments and Treatment of Escrow Account Balances The transfer requires your consent; the servicer cannot move the money on its own.