Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

We have been a regular investor in agency CRT securities. Those have certainly tightened in this year, but those potentially remain interesting. There is some other shorter dated opportunities as well, more senior non-rated cash flows that others are issuing that we are focused on as well as other types of return profiles. We won’t be investing in mortgage servicing rights. But obviously with the potential for certain banks to be divesting of those, there might be some interesting opportunities there as well. So in general, these will chin the bar, with that, mid teens or higher still based on where we see the market right now.

Bose George: Okay, great. And then actually just going back to the resi mortgage banking business, in terms of getting back to normalized returns, do you need to see some pickup in refi activity or as sort of industry capacity gets pulled out overtime, you can sort of get to normalized returns that way?

Dash Robinson: Yes, it’s kind of all of the above. I think the first and most important thing is stability in rates. I think that rate volatility has kept a lot of consumers on the sidelines with respect to buying homes, and obviously refinancing homes. But the business can function in high rate environments. I think the housing — demand in housing market has picked up in January and we will be heading into the spring selling season here. So I think the capacity issue is a real issue. It’s a bigger issue I think for mortgage originators than it is for us. If anything with the Wells announcement, there is going to be fewer players. So that piece is a positive. But I think the real answer is, rate stability, because it not only drives consumer behavior, but also demand for our bonds.

And I think once we have had a really good January, frankly. And if we can continue the momentum here, I could certainly see the economics penciling out much better for the business in the coming months and certainly in the coming quarters.

Operator: Our next question comes from Steve DeLaney with JMP Securities. Please state your question.

Steve DeLaney: Thanks, Folks. Hi. I was a little late getting on, but I wanted to ask you if you haven’t already covered it your January Sequoia deal the prime jumbo deal. If you talked about that, did you mention what we see the 5% coupon on the notes sold did you mention what the WACC was on the loan pool?

Christopher Abate: Yes, it was about was about five and a quarter gross a little bit above that, Steve.

Steve Laws: Okay. So pretty tight in and was that you both of you mentioned sort of this mid-team kind of target hurdle. Was that deal the execution there that did that get you there or do you, was there something unique about that, that you needed to clear those out, get those permanently financed. But at the margin today with current loans, that your purchase money jumbo loans that you’re originating and pricing. Do you think that 15% are we hurdle is doable on this loan product?