“Government policy is squarely in the driver seat, defining and driving outcomes,” said Smriti Popenoe, co-CEO and president of Dynex Capital.

A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis showed a total of $164.28 billion of agency MSR changed hands in the first three months of the new year, down 84.1% from the prior quarter.

Officials at Dynex said the poor performance was due to widening mortgage spreads during the later stage of the first quarter.

Ginnie posted a 1.3% quarterly gain in servicing outstanding to $2.726 trillion at the end of March, not including servicing of home-equity conversion mortgages.

The book value for a large group of real estate investment trusts that focus on mortgage-backed securities declined by an average of 5.1% during the first quarter of 2026, according to projections by analysts at Citizens JMP Securities.

The PIMCO team criticized one of the most popular proposals for lowering the cost of a mortgage: reducing the guarantee fees charged by the GSEs.

“While speculation continues around the potential privatization of the government-sponsored enterprises, Morningstar DBRS does not view any changes to [their] status as likely for the length of the credit rating outlook period given the complexities and potential consequences of such an action, especially considering the current macroeconomic environment,” the rating service said.

Some $8.60 billion of conforming jumbos flowed into GSE mortgage-backed securities issued during the first quarter, an 11.0% decline from the previous quarter.

The refi share of Ginnie issuance increased to 43.9% in the first quarter of 2026, the highest since the second quarter of 2021.

BofA's originations of first mortgages increased by 42.7% on an annual basis in the first quarter of 2026.