Today, I'm signing two historic executive orders, continuing my administration's efforts to help more of our citizens achieve the dream of home ownership. It's called the American Dream. Thanks to our purchase of $200 billion in mortgage bonds, mortgage rates recently reached the lowest level in five years.
This dramatically reduces monthly payments for new home buyers. The annual cost of the typical new mortgage is down almost $5,000 since I took office. I'm very proud of that. I also signed an executive order to stop Wall Street and large institutional investment firms from buying up all the single-family homes in the scheme to turn them into rentals and make lots of money in doing it. We want America to be a nation of owners, not renters.
Today I'm taking action to help reduce rates even more, and make it much easier to build new homes in America. The first executive order is about bringing more community banks back into the mortgage business. Two decades ago, over 5,000 community banks were offering mortgages. Today that number has been slashed by more than 50 percent, largely because of burdensome, unnecessary regulations that radical liberals impose on community lenders for the benefit of their donors on Wall Street and, frankly, for the benefit of themselves.
The result was less competition and higher mortgage rates for hardworking Americans like you. That is why under my order we will eliminate that thicket of unnecessary rules and Restrictions that crippled community banks. They've been hurt so badly. We're bringing them back. When more local banks start offering mortgages again, fees will go down, costs will fall, and home buyers will be able to get a mortgage under the more affordable terms that we're insisting on.
The second executive order I'm signing today will help lower construction costs for building new homes, so that home builders can offer Americans more affordable options. I'm going to sign them right now.
[Donald Trump signs the executive orders]
Cool. No auto pen. Okay? That's my real signature. It's not an auto pen like you had in the past. As part of the green new scam, the Biden administration and many state and local governments added endless ridiculous regulations that raise construction costs very, very substantially. With my order today, we will slash many of these pointless regulations that do nothing for safety and add lots of costs -- is really unfair to the home buyers, and ultimately they're the ones paying for this disaster.
Under the Trump administration, we want to make it possible for every American to live that American dream in a beautiful home, and it's really the one that they pick, it's gonna be the apple of their eye.
So I just want to thank everybody. Our country is doing really well. It's being thought of all over the world with great respect again, more than maybe it's ever had. Thank you very much. Have a good time.