You cannot transfer your mortgage interest rate to a new home in the United States. Nearly every US mortgage includes a due-on-sale clause that requires the full balance to be paid off when you sell the property securing the loan, so when you buy your next house you take out a new mortgage at whatever rate the market is offering that day. The feature that would let you carry your rate from one property to another, known as mortgage portability, exists in Canada and the United Kingdom but is not available here. The closest US workaround is buying a home that already has an assumable government-backed loan at a favorable rate.
Why Your Rate Doesn’t Follow You
Federal law lets lenders include a provision making 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 provision sits inside virtually every conventional US mortgage, and the federal rule overrides any state law that might otherwise block a lender from calling the loan due.
There is a structural reason the industry won’t simply waive it. Conventional loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are bundled into mortgage-backed securities and sold to investors. Swapping the collateral property on a loan already inside one of those securities would disrupt the structure, so these loans require full payoff at sale. The practical result for you is the same regardless of the plumbing: when you sell, the old mortgage is paid off at closing, and the loan on your next house is a brand-new one at current rates.
The Closest Workaround: Assuming Someone Else’s FHA or VA Loan
You can’t carry your own rate forward, but you can sometimes step into someone else’s. Certain government-backed loans allow a qualified buyer to assume the seller’s existing mortgage, keeping the original interest rate, remaining balance, and repayment schedule. If the home you want to buy has an existing FHA or VA loan at a rate below today’s market, this is the one path that preserves a low rate.
FHA Loan Assumptions
FHA-insured loans originated after December 1, 1986 are assumable with lender approval. You have to meet the lender’s credit and income requirements, pay an assumption processing fee, and cover FHA closing costs. The original interest rate and remaining term carry over. You also need to cover the gap between the remaining loan balance and the home’s purchase price, either in cash or through a second loan at current rates.
VA Loan Assumptions
VA-guaranteed loans are also assumable, and you don’t need to be a veteran or service member to assume one. You pay a VA funding fee of 0.5 percent of the remaining loan balance, though buyers who would normally be exempt from the funding fee are also exempt from the assumption fee.2Veterans Benefits Administration. Circular 26-24-17 – Secondary Borrowing Requirements on Assumption Transactions You still have to meet the lender’s credit standards, and the same gap-financing issue applies: the balance you’re assuming is almost always less than the price of the house, and you have to make up the difference.
Two caveats are worth knowing before you count on this strategy. First, you have to actually find a listing with an assumable loan at a rate worth preserving, which is a narrow slice of inventory. Second, the cash or secondary financing needed to bridge the balance-to-price gap can be substantial, and that secondary financing will be at today’s rates.
Transfers That Don’t Trigger the Due-on-Sale Clause
Federal law carves out specific situations where a lender cannot call the loan due even though the property changes hands. These apply to residential properties with fewer than five units:1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 US Code 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
- A transfer where the borrower’s spouse or children become an owner
- A transfer resulting from a divorce decree, legal separation, or related property settlement
- A transfer that happens automatically when a joint tenant or co-owner dies
- A transfer to a relative after the borrower’s death
- A transfer into a living trust where the borrower stays a beneficiary and occupancy doesn’t change
- Adding a subordinate lien, like a home equity line, that doesn’t shift occupancy rights
- Granting a lease of three years or less with no purchase option
These protect family, estate-planning, and incidental transfers. None of them let you move your rate to a different property you’re buying on the open market. If you’re selling your current home and buying another one, the due-on-sale clause applies and the loan has to be paid off.
What Happens to Your Escrow When You Pay Off and Move
When you sell and pay off your mortgage, your servicer has to return any remaining escrow balance — the money 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.
One exception: if your new mortgage is with the same lender or servicer, you can agree to have the remaining escrow balance credited directly to the escrow on your new loan instead of being refunded.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR Part 1024 – Timely Escrow Payments and Treatment of Escrow Account Balances That can reduce the upfront escrow deposit you’d otherwise fund at closing. The agreement can be oral or written, but your servicer cannot move the balance without your consent.
Is Portability Coming to the US?
There is growing interest in the idea, driven mostly by the rate lock-in effect: homeowners holding mortgages in the 2 to 4 percent range are reluctant to sell when replacing the loan at current rates, averaging above 6 percent in early 2026, would substantially raise their monthly payments. That reluctance shrinks the supply of homes for sale.
In November 2025, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency said publicly that the agency was evaluating portable mortgages, though no formal proposal or rulemaking has followed. Any implementation would have to address how portability interacts with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitization structure, and existing mortgages with due-on-sale clauses could not be made portable retroactively without agreement from the investors holding those securities.
Until something changes, if you want to hold on to a below-market rate when moving, the only real levers are finding a home with an assumable FHA or VA loan already in place, or negotiating a seller concession to help buy down the rate on a new mortgage.