Fannie Mae TBAs Rally with the Bond Market
Real Estate Must-Knows for this Holiday-Shortened Week
Fannie Mae and the to-be-announced market
When the Federal Reserve talks about buying MBS (mortgage-backed securities), it’s referring to the TBA (to-be-announced) market. The TBA market allows loan originators to take individual loans and turn them into a homogeneous product they can trade. TBAs settle once a month.
Fannie Mae loans go into Fannie Mae securities. TBAs are broken out by coupon rate and settlement date. In the above chart, we see Fannie Mae’s 3.5% coupon for September delivery.
Fannie Mae TBAs rise by 8 ticks
Fannie Mae TBAs started last week at 103 24/32 and picked up 1/4 to go out at 104. The ten-year bond yield, which you can trade through the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT), fell by 6 basis points. Interestingly, as we saw in Part 4 of this series, mortgage rates were unchanged
Implications for mortgage REITs
Mortgage REITs and ETFs—including Annaly Capital (NLY), American Capital Agency (AGNC), and MFA Financial (MFA)—are the biggest non-central-bank holders of TBAs. They use the TBA market as a vehicle to quickly increase and decrease exposure to MBS. TBAs are highly liquid and much easier to trade than a portfolio of older existing MBS. Non-agency REITs such as Two Harbors (TWO) are less likely to trade TBAs.
Investors interested in trading the mortgage REIT sector through an ETF should look at the iShares Mortgage Real Estate Capped ETF (REM).
In general, you can consider mortgage REITs among the biggest lenders in the mortgage market. When TBAs rally, mortgage REITs see capital gains. These gains increase TBA returns, especially when added to their interest income.
You should take care, however, because REITs use leverage and volatility in interest rates to work against them.
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