Brandon Ivey

In late February, just before interest rates started rising, the refi share of applications was close to 60%.

Fannie held $110.46 billion of agency MBS as of the end of April, a 5.3% increase compared with the end of March.

Conventional-conforming mortgages accounted for 54.3% of originations in the first quarter of 2026.

The CRT transaction will cover close to half of the first-lien mortgages OceanFirst was holding as of the end of March.

Buying by insurance companies is seen as a key driver in the expanded-credit MBS market.

GSE MBS investors were frustrated with limited communication from the Trump administration even before FHFA Director Bill Pulte was named acting director of national intelligence this week. The appointment prompted more speculation about the future of the GSEs.

“Now credit-worthy consumers are able to actually have a choice as to which credit score is used, and that means that the days are numbered for our competitor, because they can’t out innovate us,” said Silvio Tavares, president and CEO of VantageScore.

“There needs to be more clarity on how the GSEs participate in this space,” said Barath Sankaran, a portfolio manager of mortgages at Loomis Sayles.

It's not clear how the GSEs are applying loan level price adjustments to mortgages underwritten with VantageScore.

Cash window acquisitions by the GSEs look to be cutting into the volume of production flowing to correspondent aggregators.