Mortgage REITs are not landlords: they own paper, not property, earning leveraged spreads on mortgages and real estate loans. That difference explains everything about this page: the double-digit yields, the dividend-cut histories, and why our grades run lower here than any equity REIT sector. These are rate and credit vehicles that happen to wear the REIT wrapper, graded on the same five pillars without curve adjustment. All twenty-eight publicly traded mortgage REITs we cover are ranked below with live data, the most complete graded mREIT table published anywhere.
For income investors: REIT dividend safety 2026 tracks every dividend cut this year, ranks the monthly payers by grade and lists the highest yields that still grade B or better.
Rates: the median mortgage REIT fell 19.2 percent between August 14 and October 2, 2026, as the 10-year Treasury yield climbed from 4.68 to 5.28 percent. REITs and interest rates ranks all 15 sectors by rate sensitivity.
Grades follow the published REIT Rankings methodology. Yields and market caps update automatically with market data.
Why Mortgage REIT Grades Run Low
Our framework weights dividend safety at 30% and balance sheet at 25%, and mortgage REITs structurally concede both: payouts are designed to flex with spread regimes (nearly every name on this page has cut at least once, several serially), leverage runs 5 to 9x, and book value, the real scoreboard, marks to market daily. A C here is not an insult; it is an accurate description of a cyclical yield instrument. The handful pushing toward B earned it with coverage cushions and durability records.
How to Read This Ranking
Rithm (68) leads on the sector’s widest coverage, a dividend earned twice over by a diversified servicing-origination-asset management engine. Starwood (66) owns the durability record: $0.48 for over a decade, with the Q1 coverage gap flagged honestly. The agency tier (Dynex, NLY, AGNC) is enjoying its best spread regime in years, graded with full-cycle memory. The bottom band (ABR mid-workout, ARR and ORC with serial-reset structures, BXMT under its reduced payout) is priced without sentiment: high yields compensating documented risks.