Record Home Equity Could Change Your Next Move & Interest Rate Break

Mortgage rates finally show some relief as world events push oil down and bond markets respond, giving us a real reason to feel optimistic again. 

We dig into record-setting US homeowner equity and the practical choices it creates for buying, refinancing, renovating, and even investing. 

• Iran US deal implications for oil prices and mortgage interest rates 
• Record $49T in owner-occupied home value and $35T in equity 
• Insurance cost shocks and why ownership can offer more control 
• Who to call back after 2 to 7 years of ownership 
• Equity options like HELOCs, second mortgages, and renovation seconds 
• Using home equity as a starting point for real estate investing 

You can find Nikki on TikTok or Instagram @mortgagesfromMntoAZ. And on Facebook under Nikki Erickson, text or call 952-484-1584 or email me at Nikki@Kevnikgroup.com. 

Transcript

Welcome And Quick Market Pulse

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Monday Market update. It is June 15th, 2026. Nikki, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:08

I'm doing great. You can see there's a huge smile on my face. We had some exciting news over the weekend with a deal being made between Iran and the United States and all the people involved to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran Deal Oil Drop Rates Ease

SPEAKER_01 0:20

That's great in general for the world, but it's also wonderful for mortgage interest rates. So I just quoted somebody this morning down at six and a quarter to 6.375, depending on if they wanted to pay points, which is huge news. I haven't seen those numbers in probably three, four weeks now. So that's, you know, that's exciting stuff. Oil is down to $80 a barrel, which is also affecting the mortgage interest rate, affecting the bond prices, things like that. So as long as they can get that deal signed on Friday, as it is, and those signatures take effect, we should start seeing improvement on mortgage interest rates. Another thing happening this week is that Kevin Warsh has his first Fed meeting officially as the Fed chair. So this should, this news out of Iran should give him a more positive outlook on the future of dropping that Fed interest rate. So reminder Fed interest rate doesn't directly connect to mortgage interest rate, although it does have influence on the 10-year bond, which is what is the mortgage interest rates are connected to. So very exciting news. Hopefully, I'm hoping for a good week. Hopefully, everything will go well with signing everything, you know, and getting things kind of moved along so that we can have more positive stuff all around, more positive economic structure all around. So that's kind of how things are right now, which is a great update. I haven't been able to give good news in a really long time. So also wanted to talk about an interesting statistic that I had heard over the weekend about the amount of equity in homes across the nation. So the Fed, the Fed's flow of funds tracks owner-occupied properties and the amount of mortgage and the amount of equity on specifically owner-occupied

Home Equity Hits Record High

SPEAKER_01 1:55

properties. We're not talking about investment properties. We're not talking about second homes. This is primary residence ownership across the U.S. Um, it actually hit an all-time high here over the week, over the transition from May into June. We are now at $49 trillion in homeowner, owner, owner-occupied homeownership across the United States. Well, what's that how that's relevant is that we have $14, I'm sorry, $49 trillion. We have $14 trillion in mortgages across owner-occupied residences across the United States. So that means we actually have $35 trillion in equity for owner-occupied homes as a nation, which is the highest it's ever been. That is wonderful news. It shows that things are going in the right direction. It shows that those mortgage balances are staying lower than what we had expected, and that there is plenty of equity in the owner-occupied or primary residence space. So that was really cool. I also wanted to talk about, and I know this comes up a lot, but I I see a couple influencers or I watch a couple influencers on TikTok, more specifically, financial influencers. And they always talk about homeownership and they always talk about renting versus owning. And it was really interesting. I have seen one

Rent Versus Own Debate Online

SPEAKER_01 3:10

influencer over the weekend when I was watching TikTok. He was talking about how it's better if you're in a strapped financial situation. It's actually better for you to rent than it is to own. And he was just saying, like, you don't have the maintenance costs, you don't have this cost, that cost. And I was like pretty shocked by this because normally the financial influencers of financial people that I listen to, they are big advocates of homeownership, especially for people who have, you know, financial um stress or whatever that is, because it keeps that housing payment stable versus where rent can go up every year and there's, you know, no telling when the person that the landlord's going to sell the property or they might kick you out, or you have a 60-day to vacate, and it's, you know, you have to put your deposit down and all these different things that may come up from a rental, whereas a homeownership is actually a more stable environment as far as housing goes. So I, so what did I do? I went right to the comments. And I will tell you, out of the 5,000 comments that were on this video, not one that I saw. Now, of course, I didn't read through all 5,000 of them, but I got a good majority of them. Not one of them said, I agree with you, we should rent instead of owning. Every single person on every single comment was like, this is the worst advice I've ever heard. So even though you may have some financial people telling saying, oh, it's better for you know to rent right now than it is to buy, that is not the consumer sentiment at all. So suffice to say, again, if you have people that have been on the fence over the past year, talk to them about renting versus owning. Where are they at in their rental agreement? What happened to their rent when they sign the new lease? You know, are these things that we can help with from a down payment assistance standpoint or from another standpoint where it's like, let's get you into that home ownership category versus the rental category?

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Absolutely. And this brings up a good point. I just saw this this morning actually on Facebook. There was a woman who was on there a week or two ago, I don't know, complaining, I guess for lack of better terms, as many people are about their insurance and how it's just gone up. I mean, when she started, it was like years ago $1,700, and it's almost double.

Control Costs Insurance Down Payment Help

SPEAKER_00 5:15

And so the lovely thing was is that this morning she said, and I'm glad I came on here and complained because I found a solution and I'm saving $384 a month. Yeah. So that's right in line with what you're saying. If you're putting your hands in to a landlord or your finances in the hands of a landlord, you're at their mercy. And when you own your own home, you can actually partner with people like Nikki and look at refinancing. That's another thing that you can do with all those trillions of dollars of equity. But in in that being said, you can also resource different vendors to use for your different parts of your mortgage and interest and insurance and all of it. So I mean, you just have more control. You do.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

And if you you know, if your landlord doesn't know to shop around for his insurance when it comes to renewal and his insurance almost doubles, where do you think that cost is going to go to? He's certainly not going to pay it out of his pocket, he or she. They are certainly not going to pay it out of their pocket. It's going to be passed on to you as the renter. And it may be done mid-lease. You just don't know. And so, yeah, definitely more control if you do own. There are plenty, plenty, plenty of down payment assistance programs out there that are plenty of money, really aggressive, that have really good results. And yes, with down payment assistance loans, you do pay a bit of a higher interest rate. However, if it does get you into that home, again, like Angie said, once that equity is achieved, you can refinance out of that and achieve a lower rate.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Yeah, and it doesn't take as long, especially if you can do a few different things to the home once you move in. Which, yes, going back to those trillions of dollars are sitting out there in this equity, you know, refinancing. What would what would that look like if agents are listening and they've been a real estate agent for a good, you know, five, 10, 20 years, who should they be reaching back out to to see if this is an option, maybe for them to pull some money out

Refi HELOC Second Mortgage Renovations

SPEAKER_00 7:10

or, you know, be able to do projects or pay debt down or all the or even a move up buyer that says, hey, you know, I've got all this equity.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

If I took that equity and I put it into my dream home, could I keep my payment relatively the same? So anyone that's been in their home for five to seven years, anyone that's specifically been in their home the last two to three years from a purely refinance standpoint, the last two to three years to see if there is, you know, if they're in the mid-sevens, they might be able to get down into an interest rate that, you know, is is pointless, which could be helpful given, you know, in certain situations. But specifically, anyone who's been in their home for five to seven years, maybe they, if they have a low interest rate on the first, remember they can still tap into their equity via other vehicles like a second mortgage or a home equity line of credit. And so depending on if they need it, if they want it, if they want to do home improvement, you know, there's so many options out there. I'm even doing renovation second mortgages, which is basically where we say, okay, your home is worth $300,000. At the end of the renovation, it's worth $500,000. We're going to base the lending off of the $500,000 and do that in a second position mortgage. So I'm doing a ton of those right now as well. So anybody who wants to renovate their home, anyone who says, okay, do I renovate or do I sell and buy? Those are the kind of people that you might be looking for to help because the reality is like sometimes renovating makes sense, and sometimes selling and buying and using that equity chunk onto the next home makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yes, absolutely. And I know a gentleman who is now blown up and helping other people build their own wealth. He started that way. So he bought a home, a single family home, and he fixed it up and then he pulled the HELOC, the equity out of it and bought a duplex and then did the same thing. So you also have an opportunity if you've ever wanted to start investing in real estate. If you have that equity sitting there and want to look at this, I mean, there are so many. I can hook you up with many people that can show you the blueprint. I know you've done this, Nikki. You're an investor as well. Absolutely. I mean, there's just so many opportunities where you don't have to wait if you have it sitting there. I mean, imagine that $35 trillion. What you could do and the wealth you could start building for your family, if part of that is in your equity in the home you're sitting in right now.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Sure. Absolutely. Absolutely love it. Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Yeah, and you have Nikki at your fingertips who has done investing for years and years and years and has all the information and resources. If you uh are thinking

Using Equity To Invest And Closing

SPEAKER_00 9:35

about that as well and want to see what that looks like, reach out to Nikki for sure. Absolutely. And speaking of that, how do they find you?

SPEAKER_01 9:42

So you can find me on TikTok or Instagram at mortgages from Mn to A Z. You can find me on Facebook under Nikki Erickson. You can text me at 952-484-1584 or email me at Nikki at Kevnikgroup.com.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Awesome. Well, again, thank you so much for your time. This has been another fantastic Monday market update. And listen and go sell something. And if you need anything at all or have any questions on anything we've covered, reach out to Nikki or myself. We're here and happy to help. And that's why we continue to show up every week.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

All right. We'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.