 In a report last week, Zillow came out and said that mortgage rates could hit more than 8% by September. So I want to dive into that. I want to share with you my thoughts on this. So first off, if rates went to 8%, let me tell you what would happen. Number one, transactions would go down, prices would also go down. There's no doubt about it. If you look at the mortgage payment of a $600,000 loan at between 6%, which rates are about 6.5% now, to 8%, whatever percent they think it's going to go to, that's a difference of about $600 or more a month. That would price everyone out of the market. Number of transactions would go down, also prices would go down. Even though we still would have this supply and demand issue, it would really crush demand. And I've always said that if interest rates went up to the 8% to 10% range, then we would definitely see some price decreases. So, but listen, here's the thing. If prices took a hit from 8% interest, just think about for a second how easy it would be to sell those properties at a discount to the buyers who are available. And remember, 27%, 28% of the deals out there right now are cash deals. I believe that if interest rates went up into the 8% range or so, that the percentage of cash deals would increase because you would have more investors want to jump in at the cheaper prices and take advantage of the cheaper prices and avoid the entire mortgage rate situation since mortgage rates would be at 8%. Let's dive into the actual article here, and I want to share with you some of the stats. So, this is from Fortune Zillow. US default would see mortgages top 8%, home sales plummet, and the housing market slipped back into a deep freeze. And this has to do with the debt ceiling of the US economy. Okay, lawmakers have yet to come to an agreement on the debt ceiling. Democrats want to raise it, raise the debt ceiling without any strings attached, and the Republicans are calling for a spending cut. So, we probably just want to cut spending to help solve this immediate debt issue for the US, and the Democrats want to raise the debt ceiling with no strings attached. If nothing happens, then we could come into a default where the US default is on their debt. And last Thursday, Zillow published this report. All right, let's jump over to Zillow. All right, and just kind of walk through what would happen, how would happen, and why it would happen. A debt ceiling default would send the US into a deep freeze. Okay, so home sales will likely decline sharply with projected deficits of 23% fewer sales in the hardest hit month and severe debt default scenario. Home values would be 5% lower than they thought it would be by the end of 2024. So the reason why they think interest rates would go up if the US defaulted on their debt is because of the uncertainty around treasuries, bonds, and other notes. And I believe this, that there would be a lot of uncertainty around investing into those type of vehicles, and that would cause those type of vehicles to increase. And we know that the 30-year fix is tied to inflation and the 10-year treasury. So if this were to happen, 10-year treasuries would go up, which would consequently cause 30-year fix rates to go up. On employment, they're also calling for that to go up dramatically. So here's a few charts to look at. And then I'll give you my two cents. So here's mortgage rates, right? And here's what they project to happen if, in fact, the US defaulted on their debt. They see that it goes up to 8% around September, and then slowly coming down. And getting back to the 6% range at the end of 2024. That would be very devastating to the US real estate market. This is unemployment, right? Right now, we're at around 3.5%. Boom. If the debt default happens, boom. They're talking about 8%, which slowly declines back to 4.5% by the end of 2024. This would be home sales. Home sales, they feel like would plummet down to the 3.3 million range. That would be crazy. If that were to happen and then slowly jump back up. And this would be prices showing the differences in their previous model in a no default situation versus the default situation. Here's the most important punchline of this entire thing. The headline is a debt-selling default would send the US housing market back into a defreeze. That the little title underneath, a debt default is very unlikely. That's the most important thing to look at right there. This is a very unlikely scenario, but the new scenario projects from Zillow show sales would decrease sharply as mortgage cost balloons. Okay, so this is the thing that this is a possible scenario, but highly, highly, highly unlikely. What you want to think about is that, and I talked about this with Patrick Beck David a couple of weeks ago when I sat down with him. Like me, I don't care if prices go up, down, sideways, left, right, it doesn't matter. I was here in 2008, I was selling real estate. And let me tell you, it was easy to sell properties back then. Why? Because they were 50% cheaper than they were. If we take a really big hit on prices, it becomes incredibly easy to sell. And honestly, most of the agents leave the business during a time like that. They're going to leave the business. And what he and I were talking about is the fact that the winners, the true salespeople, the people that are really good at their job and have really developed their craft and skills around this, they're going to win no matter what the market does. That's the kind of agent I want you guys to be. I want you to be the type of agent that wins no matter what and realize that, yeah, we may take a temporary hit on sales or something like this happen, but prices are also going to go down. The buyers that are left are going to be sitting there ready to buy, probably wanting to pay cash. And guess what? When you sell those properties at the bottom and prices increase, guess what? Those buyers are going to then turn into sellers. They're going to sell those properties and buy more properties, refer more people to you. And if that happened, that would be the greatest thing that happened to your career because of all the business you would get at the bottom that ballooned into snowballed into business over the short term of 1 to 2, 3 years as everything came back and then really exploded your business 2 to 3 years after that. The same way 2008 did to me. The next 2 to 3 years were really great, but then those next 2 to 3 years were even better as 2014 hit as the first year sold 100 properties. So this is a highly unlikely scenario, but if it happens, do not be scared. This will be just fine. Just think of yourself as one of those agents that it doesn't matter what the market does, you're going to go out there and crush it. When you see a lot of agents leave the business, if this were to happen, you're going to be the one standing there saying, hey, buyer, I'm still here. I want to help you buy and sell real estate for the rest of your life. And so you'll acquire so much market share. So anyway, wanted to give my thoughts on this whole Zillow projection thing. I read it and I thought that is wild, but it actually is something that could happen if the US did default on their debt, which again is very unlikely.