California is currently going through a heat wave (Sacramento set a temperature record on Tuesday at 116°), taxing the state's power grid as energy demand breaks records and power officials request homeowners to turn down their air conditioning. A break in the heat could come due to Hurricane Kay bearing down on the state, which would mean California may be trading the heat for flooding. Did you know that 66 percent of Americans don’t feel fully prepared for potential natural disasters, with many lacking key emergency preparedness items such as generators, emergency evacuation kits, and radios? You're more likely aware that the hot housing market continues to cool. Home sales are falling in response to rising interest rates and there’s still a mismatch of supply and demand. Fannie Mae reported that high home prices and mortgage rates weighed on housing sentiment in its August Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI), which posted the sixth consecutive monthly decline. Ivy Zelman’s forecast model predicts that in 2023 U.S. home prices will fall 4 percent before another 5 percent drop in 2024 due to rising inventory levels and falling demand. Though not everyone agrees with Zelman’s outlook: Zillow predicts that U.S. home prices will rise another 2.4 percent next year while Goldman Sachs predicts that U.S. home prices will rise 1.8 percent in 2023 and 3.5 percent in 2024, as does CoreLogic, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. (Today’s podcast is available here and includes an interview with Tom Booker on the reduction of repurchase risk for mortgage lenders. This week’s podcasts are sponsored by Candor, home of the One Touch Underwrite, supporting lenders from Point of Sale to Post Close QC. Reduce repurchase risk, increase underwriter productivity by 400 percent, and decrease turn-times by 10 days.)