Redwood started acquiring agency mortgages from correspondent lenders in mid-October. The REIT noted that the activity helps create mortgage servicing rights for it to invest in.
The REIT is just starting to purchase MSRs. At the end of September it had $15.7 million of mortgage servicing rights on its balance sheet, but that figure should rapidly change in the quarters ahead.
The loans in the new Redwood deal have the strong characteristics associated with jumbos, including an average credit score of 766 and a combined loan-to-value ratio of almost 71 percent.