Activity tracks the rate and affordability environment, so the pattern tells you more than any snapshot. When rates are elevated and purchase volume is soft, we see a quiet undercurrent of existing homeowners reaching out about second mortgages, usually to consolidate higher-cost debt or pay for necessary home repairs (more need-to-do than nice-to-do) while keeping the low first-lien rate they already have. What we don't expect in that kind of stretch is a wave of forced sales. Most homeowners are sitting on meaningful equity and locked-in low rates, so even someone who genuinely has to move can typically sell at a discount and still walk away with money. Distress metrics can tick up off a very low base, and big percentage swings on a tiny starting number mislead people, so we wouldn't read much into those headlines. Genuine foreclosures and short sales stay rare as long as the equity cushion holds. On the buying side, the pool that stays active in a stretched market skews toward dual-income couples with strong combined household incomes who can qualify for a large mortgage even when affordability is tight. If you want to see where your own numbers land in whatever market you're in, that's exactly what we walk through in the free Roadmap conversation, about 20 minutes, where we run your real numbers.