How a House Becomes a Bond: Who Holds America's Mortgages
Summary
U.S. households owned $49.8 trillion of owner-occupied real estate at mid-2026 and owed $14.0 trillion in home mortgages against it (Federal Reserve Z.1). This Sky survey follows the loan after closing: of $15.0 trillion in one-to-four-family mortgages, 64.2 percent ran through the agency system — the government-sponsored enterprises, chiefly Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and agency pools such as Ginnie Mae's — which turn the loans into bonds bought by banks, the Federal Reserve, and investors abroad.
The purchase: a price and a loan
The median new house sold for $417,400 in 2025⧉, and only 7 percent of the 678,000 new houses sold that year were bought for cash. The rest were financed: 73 percent with conventional or other financing, 15 percent -insured, 5 percent -guaranteed. The kind of loan shapes the road it takes next.
The sale: the lender hands the loan on
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages from lenders⧉ and either hold them or package them into mortgage-backed securities, guaranteeing investors timely principal and interest; the lender takes the cash and lends again. In 2026 they can buy loans up to $832,750 for a one-unit home⧉ in most of the country.
, , and rural loans have a parallel road: Ginnie Mae securities⧉, built from loans those federal programs insure or guarantee and backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government — so bondholders are paid on time even if a borrower or lender defaults.
Where $15 trillion of one-to-four-family mortgages sits
View data as table
| Government-sponsored enterprises (chiefly Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac) | $6,798.0B | 45.4% |
|---|---|---|
| U.S.-chartered depository institutions | $3,041.5B | 20.3% |
| Agency- and GSE-backed mortgage pools | $2,825.9B | 18.9% |
| Credit unions | $840.0B | 5.6% |
| ABS issuers (private-label) | $573.2B | 3.8% |
| Finance companies | $280.6B | 1.9% |
| All other holders | $624.3B | 4.2% |
| Total outstanding | $14,983.5B | 100% |
Of $15.0 trillion in one-to-four-family mortgages⧉ at mid-2026, 64.2 percent — $9.6 trillion — ran through the agency system. The s carried $6.8 trillion, $6.6 trillion of it Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans already securitized in trusts; Ginnie Mae and other agency pools carried $2.8 trillion. U.S. banks kept $3.0 trillion, 20.3 percent, as loans on their own books; credit unions held 5.6 percent and private-label securitizations 3.8 percent.
The bond: who funds the loan
The trusts and pools pay for the loans by selling bonds: 97.7 percent of the $9.6 trillion⧉ is securitized and matched dollar for dollar by mortgage-backed securities. U.S. banks held $2.4 trillion of those agency residential securities on top of their own loans; the Federal Reserve held $1.7 trillion of mortgage-backed securities; foreign investors, $1.5 trillion of agency and bonds.
- Owner-occupied housing is mostly equity. At mid-2026 households owned $49.8 trillion of owner-occupied real estate against $14.0 trillion of home mortgages; the $35.8 trillion difference — about 72 percent — is owners' equity.
- Most new-house buyers borrow. Of the 678,000 new houses sold in 2025, at a median price of $417,400, only 7 percent were cash sales; 73 percent used conventional or other financing, 15 percent , and 5 percent .
- Most of the debt is securitized through the agency system. The s — chiefly Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — and agency pools such as Ginnie Mae's carried $9.6 trillion, 64.2 percent of the $15.0 trillion in one-to-four-family mortgages at mid-2026, 97.7 percent of it funded by mortgage-backed securities. U.S. banks kept $3.0 trillion of loans and held $2.4 trillion more in agency residential securities.
Where this sits: This is one slice of Sky: Industries — a survey, industry by industry, of how the money moves. Housing's slice is the mortgage's road from closing to the secondary market. The next slice is retail and consumer goods: the markup chain from factory to shelf. Holder figures are Federal Reserve Financial Accounts (Z.1) levels for 2026:Q2, released September 11, 2026; the $15.0 trillion one-to-four-family total adds about $1.0 trillion owed by businesses to households' $14.0 trillion, and both include home-equity loans ($0.6 trillion). Sales figures are Census Bureau and annual 2025 estimates for newly built single-family houses only.
Sources(5) ▾
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Financial Accounts of the United States – Z.1, Second Quarter 2026 (Tables S1M.b, F4.5a.s, F3.3.s, S121.s, S122.1.s, S125s1.1.s, S125s1.2.s) (2026-09-11) — The Federal Reserve's quarterly Financial Accounts (Z.1) release for 2026:Q2, dated September 11, 2026, read in full via pdftotext -layout. Table S1M.b (Households and nonprofit organizations, p. 153) gives households' owner-occupied real estate at market value ($49,791.7 billion, line 4), their one-to-four-family residential mortgage liabilities ($13,976.9 billion, line 37), and owners' equity in real estate ($35,814.7 billion, line 53; 71.93 percent of real estate, line 54). Table F4.5a.s (One-to-four-family residential mortgages, p. 139) is the holder-by-holder map of all $14,983.5 billion outstanding: government-sponsored enterprises $6,798.0 billion, U.S.-chartered depository institutions $3,041.5 billion, agency- and -backed mortgage pools $2,825.9 billion, credit unions $840.0 billion, ABS issuers $573.2 billion, finance companies $280.6 billion, and smaller holders. Table S125s1.1.s (s, p. 110) shows $6,576.5 billion of the one-to-four-family holdings are consolidated trusts — securitized mortgages Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac moved onto their balance sheets in 2010 under new accounting rules; S125s1.2.s footnote 1 identifies the remaining pools as Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Farmer Mac, and Farmers Home Administration pools. The same two tables show the bond side: the s' consolidated-trust debt ($7,267.1 billion, S125s1.1.s line 30) and the pools' securities ($3,281.9 billion, S125s1.2.s line 6) match the mortgages they carry. Who holds those bonds: Table F3.3.s (agency- and -backed securities, $12,762.6 billion outstanding) gives the rest of the world $1,460.3 billion; Table S122.1.s gives U.S.-chartered depository institutions $1,848.6 billion of agency residential pass-throughs and $518.9 billion of agency residential CMOs; Table S121.s gives the Federal Reserve $1,668.0 billion of mortgage-backed securities. Levels are billions of dollars, amounts outstanding at end of period, not seasonally adjusted. federalreserve.gov · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, New Residential Sales: Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing (Tables Q6 and Q7), Second Quarter 2026 (2026-07-24) — Census/ quarterly new-home sales tables, read via pdftotext -layout (source line dated July 24, 2026). Table Q6 gives the median sales price of new houses sold in the United States, annual 2025: $417,400. Table Q7 (New Houses Sold by Type of Financing) gives annual 2025 counts in thousands — total 678, conventional 495, 101, 35, cash 46 — and the percent distribution 73 / 15 / 5 / 7. 'Conventional' includes houses reporting other types of financing; houses with unreported financing are distributed proportionally. Covers newly built single-family houses only, not resales. The file is the Census Bureau's current-quarter copy, so the Wayback capture freezes the version read. census.gov · original document
- Federal Housing Finance Agency, FHFA Announces Conforming Loan Limit Values for 2026 (2025-11-25) — FHFA news release setting the 2026 conforming loan limits — the largest loans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will acquire. In most of the United States the 2026 limit for one-unit properties is $832,750, up $26,250 from 2025, adjusted under HERA by the 3.26 percent rise in the FHFA House Price Index; the high-cost-area ceiling is $1,249,125 (150 percent of the baseline). fhfa.gov · original document
- Federal Housing Finance Agency, About Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac (2026-10-15) — FHFA's description of what the Enterprises do, read in full: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages from lenders and either hold them in portfolio or package them into mortgage-backed securities () that may be sold; lenders use the cash raised by selling mortgages to the Enterprises to engage in further lending; and by guaranteeing the timely payment of principal and interest on the underlying mortgages, the Enterprises attract secondary-market investors who might not otherwise invest in mortgages. The page carries no publication date, so its date is the access date; its metadata gives a last modification of August 7, 2026, and the Wayback capture of September 27, 2026 holds the same three passages verbatim. fhfa.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Government National Mortgage Association — Mortgage-Backed Securities Program, 2027 Congressional Justification (2026-04-06) — 's fiscal 2027 budget justification for Ginnie Mae's program, read via pdftotext -layout. Its Program Purpose section states that the Ginnie Mae is comprised of loans insured or guaranteed by federal housing programs — 's Federal Housing Administration () and Office of Public and Indian Housing, the Department of Veterans Affairs' Loan Guaranty Service, and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service — and is backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government so investors receive timely payment of principal and interest even if a borrower or lender defaults. Date is the PDF's creation date. hud.gov · original document
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At mid-2026, American households owned $49.8 trillion of owner-occupied real estate⧉ and owed $14.0 trillion in home mortgages against it. The difference, $35.8 trillion or about 72 percent, is owners' equity: the share of their homes households own free of debt. This slice follows the other part: the loan, from the closing table to the bond buyers who end up funding it.