Related Link: Steven Mnuchin May Now Be Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Investors' Last Hope

In the meantime, investors will be watching closely for any changes in the way the government handles Fannie and Freddie’s quarterly dividend payments. Since 2012, 100 percent of the two entities’ profits have been turned over to the Treasury. If the Trump administration plans on eventually returning control of Fannie and Freddie to shareholders, the first step in the process would be to recapitalize the mortgage giants.

Height Securities analyst Edwin Groshans expects that it would take more than a decade to recapitalize Fannie and Freddie to a point where they could safely be released from government conservatorship.

Groshans said Mnuchin has pledged to first explore a bipartisan plan for Fannie and Freddie.

“That process will have to play out until it in essence fails,” Mnuchin said. “When that process fails, that would open the opportunity for Mnuchin and Watts to act.”

In the meantime, Fannie and Freddie shareholders must continue doing what they have been doing for years now: watching, waiting and hoping.