As I've discussed in many recent articles, it seems clear that mortgage REITs are a great place for dividend-oriented investors to deploy their capital today. While dividends are below 4% for almost all investments (stocks, bonds, and equity REITs), they remain above 7% and often above 10% in mortgage REITs.
Even more, the current macroeconomic fundamentals support significantly higher mortgage REIT returns as the yield curve has seemingly bottomed and new home demand/construction is surging (though still have a lot higher to go). On top of that, homeowner leverage is very low by historical standards