Rates on 30-year new purchase mortgages dropped for a fifth day Thursday, slipping another 3 basis points to create a week-long decline of 23 points. The current average of 6.60% establishes a new low point for this year, with the last time rates were cheaper being two weeks before Christmas.

Trump could order the Treasury Department to start buying mortgage-backed securities, like when the Federal Reserve bought roughly $1.45 trillion of MBSs during the Great Recession. That was popularly known as quantitative easing. Buying MBS can reduce mortgage rates by increasing competition and increasing mortgage market liquidity.