Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will begin buying “large quantities” of mortgage-backed securities (MBS), according to a Friday afternoon X post by Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Pulte, who also serves as board chairman of Fannie and Freddie, made the social media comments in response to an Inside Mortgage Finance article that flagged declining MBS holdings at the government-sponsored enterprises for the past three months.

“We are beginning to buy even more, large quantities, as we speak,” Pulte wrote.

In January, Pulte confirmed that President Donald Trump had authorized the purchase of up to $200 billion in MBS by the mortgage giants.

The president positioned the move as a way to drive mortgage rates down. Rates did indeed dip after the announcement, with the 30-year fixed rate falling below 6% for the first time since 2022. But rates are now near 7%, due in part to oil supply chain pressures from the ongoing Iran war.

Fannie and Freddie’s MBS holdings steadily increased between January and April, ending that period at a combined $167.63 billion. But they have tailed off since.

According to the companies’ monthly summaries, they held a combined $155.39 billion in MBS at the end of July. That was down from $161.68 billion at the end of June and $162.38 billion at the end of May.