MBS holdings in the retained mortgage portfolios of the GSEs doubled between June 2025 and the end of the year. And that’s before President Trump directed them to buy $200 billion of MBS. (Includes data table.)

Republicans are poised to introduce a bill that would codify reforms of the GSEs that have been completed administratively. The bill would also establish a utility model framework for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and alter how calculations are made to annual changes in loan limits.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appear to be using aggressive pricing at the cash window to boost whole loan purchases, then retaining the most attractive coupons.

FHFA quietly increased the cap on the GSEs’ holdings of agency MBS from $40 billion apiece to $225 billion. That’s the same as the cap on their entire retained mortgage portfolios.

Columbia University researchers dispute the conventional wisdom that says Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dramatically overpay CRT investors.

President Trump effectively directed the GSEs to fill in the role that the Fed had been serving in terms of agency MBS investments. The stimulus could be short lived, with the purchases expected to wrap up by June.

A mortgage with a prepayment penalty might be as much as 65 basis points cheaper for borrowers, according to GSE shareholder Bill Ackman.

As long as the GSEs are profit-seeking entities, Urban Institute analysts suggest that allowing Fannie and Freddie to buy large amounts of agency MBS would leave the GSEs “with every incentive to swell their balance sheets to enormous levels during these periods of volatility.”

The securitization rate for residential mortgages originated during the third quarter was near the same level seen in 2019. Meanwhile, the share of GSE-eligible mortgages that flowed into MBS increased.

Freddie sets an end date for investors to exchange legacy securities for those created as part of the single security initiative.