As I type these words, I am sitting in front of one of Chuck Berry’s early residences in St. Louis. STL has a good musical reputation, a fine mortgage association, a Fed that puts out great research, and has many nice neighborhoods. But to call this specific area where I am sitting a “transitional” neighborhood would be generous. Although there is potential, nearly every house standing could use an immense amount of work, and the residents probably aren’t regulars at home improvement stores. In fact, across the nation people aren’t rushing off to specifically Home Depot, either because of consumers slowing down or because people are boycotting it and view it as a “threat to democracy.” Strange times. Indeed, HD missed earnings estimates and took down its forecast for the fourth quarter, either because of consumer uncertainty or because consumers are going elsewhere. In other trends, how’s your companies loan products for cities? A new study shows that 80 percent of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, like St. Louis and Kansas City. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s are sponsored by Figure. Figure is shaking up the lending world with their five-day HELOC, offering borrower approvals in as little as five minutes and funding in five days. And, embedding their technology is easy. Hear an interview with HomeLight’s Nick Friedman on lender sentiment heading into 2026, with optimism rising and new buyer behaviors taking shape that could reshape the housing market.)