The GSE Buying Paradox

Kirill Krylov and Steven Scheerer revisit the surge in GSE MBS buying and explain why its apparent success may create longer-term challenges for housing supply, mortgage rates, and GSE reform. They examine how shifts in Fed leadership and balance sheet philosophy could keep mortgage rates sticky even as policy rates ease, and why predictability matters more than low rates for housing liquidity. The episode closes with a deeper look at how using the GSEs as an affordability tool complicates any credible path toward privatization or exit from conservatorship.