“Pro Tip: Here’s a friendly 4th of July reminder that absolutely no one is going to watch the videos of the fireworks you record on your phone.” You can bet anyone flying some place is watching the flight delays due to staffing and weather. You can bet that people are watching home price appreciation, especially in terms of home equity, HELOCs, and cash-out refinancing. Expect home price appreciation to slow (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing) due to increased supply, steady interest rates, and weaker economic conditions. (No one wants to go back to the 20 percent gains we saw in 2020 and 2021.) The Fannie Mae Home Price Expectations Survey forecasts average home price growth of 2.9% in 2025 and 2.8% in 2026. Zillow projects a 0.7% decline in U.S. home prices between May 2025 and May 2026 due to increased housing inventory. The Mortgage Bankers Association expects home prices to rise by 1.3% in 2025, followed by a 0.3% increase in 2026 and 2027. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by Figure, which 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. Figure has hundreds of partners in the banking, CU, home improvement, and (of course) IMB space embedding their technology, giving borrowers an experience they will rave about. Today’s has an interview with Halcyon’s Kirk Donaldson on the question, “Why is it so expensive to originate a mortgage?” as well as an exploration of how automation, compensation models, regulatory burdens, and tech interoperability could reshape costs and lead to a more efficient future.)