The first quarter was one of the toughest ever for mortgage real estate investment trusts (mREITs). As the coronavirus pandemic set in, creditors pulled back, liquidity vanished almost overnight, and new legislation introduced massive uncertainty. Mortgage-backed securities, even government-insured ones, fell like a tech stock after a bad earnings report. And the Fed stepped in to support the market, which introduced a whole slew of new headaches.
Every player in the sector took its lumps -- even the agency mREITs, which specialize in government-guaranteed loans. Many others had near-death experiences. The non-agency REITs suffered the worst. How did one of the leaders in that space handle it?
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