The U.S. in the past year recorded the highest national house-price appreciation in recent decades. Does the run-up in home prices represent housing-bubble déjà vu? And what can MBS investors do to assess their mortgage credit risk?

Could coronavirus-induced economic shocks hurt U.S. house prices as much as the 2008 global financial crisis did? This article identifies four drivers that could produce much milder house-price depreciation this time. 

We speak with David Zhang, MSCI’s head of research on securitized products, about the Federal Reserve’s efforts to support the securitization market during COVID-19, and how different credit sectors have reacted.

We performed our annual review of MSCI’s model for managing prepayment and interest-rate risk in agency mortgage-backed securities. How closely did the model’s forecasts anticipate what we observed in the market?

Artificial intelligence has broken through in fields previously dominated by humans. Could AI surpass humans in modeling the complex risks of agency mortgage-backed securities?

Amid the uncertainty over Federal Reserve policy, investors in commercial real estate (CRE) are confronting asset-allocation challenges and growing concerns about CRE valuation and debt levels, after an extended period of easy credit.

Credit spreads and debt issuance are at historical levels, as credit markets show signs of overheating. History has shown that following an overheated credit market, long-term credit returns have been generally weaker, in absolute terms and relative to U.S. Treasurys; particularly for high yield (HY). Given the intensity of past credit binge hangovers, long-term investors may want to review their current asset allocation strategies.

How might the Fed’s plan to reduce its bond-buying program affect returns and risk for Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities? After nine years of quantitative easing, the Fed plans to reduce the amount of Treasury and mortgage-back securities it buys every month. The first time the Fed broached this idea, the market responded with a “taper tantrum.” This time, however, the Fed has made clear that it plans to pursue a conservative tapering policy and has communicated its plan more clearly....