I just got back from emceeing Rock the Locks over the weekend — honestly a total rocket ship (and yes, I proposed to Alisa backstage and she said yes) — and we kick this midweek Punch List off with that high-energy recap before diving into the real stuff. We dig into fresh housing data: mortgage rates have crept back above 7% (Freddie Mac ~7.03%, Bankrate ~7.33%), existing-home sales hit a 2026 low, and Redfin says there were about 57.9% more sellers than buyers in August — the most lopsided market on record. That imbalance means tons of price cuts (Denver hit 31.4% of listings with cuts; Portland about 30.5%), builders are even buying down interest rates by a couple points in some markets to compete, and remodeling activity is stalling as homeowners hold off on big projects. We also run a hard-hitting recalls roundup — from online mattresses failing flammability rules to smart glasses that can overheat, reclining-chair battery packs sold on Amazon, heated blankets, infrared saunas that can short and overheat, pool heaters risking carbon monoxide, and more — so if you’ve got any of that gear, please go check it. Bottom line: great music and good vibes at the festival, but the housing market’s getting messy and your stuff might be a recall away from drama — we walk you through what to watch and what to do next, plus I sneak in a teaser for our weekend show and the new YouTube reviews (generator and one-person grill tested at the fest).

Takeaways:

• I emceed Rock the Locks last weekend, proposed to Alisa backstage, and honestly couldn't stop smiling — it was an epic, music-fueled highlight that reminded me why live events matter.
• We're seeing mortgage rates around seven percent (and sometimes higher), which is squeezing buyers, cooling sales, and making now a real window for renters with savings to pounce.
• I dug into Redfin's August data — about 57.9% more sellers than buyers nationally — and that lopsided inventory gives buyers real leverage in many markets.
• We're watching builders buy down interest by as much as two points, so new construction with lower rates and big warranties is outcompeting comparable existing homes right now.
• We ran the recall scoreboard on the show — everything from tens of thousands of flammable online mattresses to overheating smart glasses and saunas — so please check cpsc.gov and double-check what you bought.
• I'm seeing remodeling stall and contractors reporting record cancellations, meaning homeowners are favoring repairs over big projects and planning more cautiously this cycle.

Links referenced in this episode:

• cpsc.gov

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Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

Foreign.

It's Wednesday and that means it's time for the punch list, the midweek edition of around the House.

Every good job has a punch list.

The last few things you check before you call it done.

This is ours.

The stuff you need to know about your home.

Straight up and no fluff.

Here's your host, Eric Goranson.

Welcome to the around the House show.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me.

This is our punch list episode.

This is that midweek show that we do that well didn't cover the things that we did last weekend and of course the stuff that's not going to make the show this weekend.

And man, I tell you what, I am just coming back off such an amazing high this last week.

Last weekend I was out, if you watch on social media, I was out as the emcee of the Rock the Locks Music festival.

And I tell you what, that was a rocket ship.

It was so much fun getting to hang out with bands, getting to do stuff with friends that were in the area that were at the show.

And it was absolutely stunning.

When I'm talking a rock show, this was a rock show.

I mean we saw Jack, we saw Daughtry, we saw Godsmack, Bombshell, Molly 7, Dust Blue, Tattoo, Theory of a Dead Man, Candle Box, Simple Plan and the list just kept going.

And then of course on Sunday night it was Cowboy Mouth, Rocket Mafia, Royal Bliss, Tesla, Leonard Skynyrd.

It was a great show and thanks to Fantasy Productions, Eric and Tammy for having me out.

It was such a great time and of course I got to propose.

Elisa said yes and wow, just what an amazing time.

I made so many great friends and got to meet some amazing people.

Ricky Rocket Poisons drummer, him and his wife, some of the nicest people, chit chatting with them and of course sitting to be backstage and just getting to watch all the musicians play together, work together.

Ricky Rocket jumped out with lead singer Jeff from Tesla and they jumped out and finished up with, well, it was a free bird.

They jumped on stage with them on, it was just, it was amazing.

It was such a great show.

So thanks to everybody out there, everybody that was so kind.

This was in Umatilla, Oregon this last weekend.

If you missed it, you missed a great show.

There were people that traveled across the country to come see this.

We camped and just had full access to everyone out there and all the fans and the friends of the show.

It was just an absolute amazing time.

So yeah, just coming off that voice is getting back a little bit and so that was just kind of what we started out with what a great show.

All right, well, I wanted to talk today a little bit more on housing prices and it just keeps changing out there.

So here's one of the things that I'm seeing.

There are in a lot of places in the country, there are some tough places to sell homes and it is really spun around.

It doesn't have, you know, help having really what, above 7%.

So Freddie Mac's weekly average was 7.03% for the week ending September 24th, up point, up from 6.30 a year ago.

Bank rate also has today's average at 7.33.

And Housing Wire saw it spiked to 7.49% last week when bond markets jumped on the Iran war news.

And tough talk from the Fed.

Purchase applications are down a go and about 42% of listings now have price cuts.

Sellers, brace yourselves, buyers, you're in line.

This is your time now.

Builder confidence fell to 32 in September, the lowest in a year.

Now remodeling, that's stalling, too.

That's a record.

People are sticking to repairs and putting off those big dream prod projects.

So that's one of those things.

You got to be very careful.

And now, of course, you're going.

Well, that's not my area.

It might not be.

But let's talk about how many sellers versus buyers.

So all top 10 are in the Sunbelt and four of them are in Texas.

And this comes from Redfin's report on August data published on September 10th.

So Nashville, they have 139% more sellers than buyers.

Miami, 138%.

Houston, 131%, a record for Houston.

Orlando, 100%, up from a hundred percent in July.

That's the biggest one month jump.

Las Vegas, a new record.

One hundred and seventeen percent.

San Antonio, one hundred and sixty six, one hundred and sixteen percent.

Sorry.

Austin, one hundred and fifteen percent.

Dallas, one hundred and eight percent, a record.

Atlanta at 96 and Phoenix, about 95%.

But across the country, there were 57.9% more sellers than buyers in August.

This is the most lopsided market in Redfin's records.

And there's only five metro areas that I could find that still favor sellers.

That's Nassau County, New York, Newark, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Milwaukee and San Francisco.

So that's where we're at.

Be careful, guys.

In August, realtor.com found Denver had the highest share of listings with price cuts at 31.4%.

And my area of Portland was second at 30.5%.

So you can start to really see why what's going on here.

Now, be careful with Florida.

Miami has a flood of listings, but the prices are still up 3.5% on the case Shiller index.

And Florida Realtor described the state as leveling off versus crashing.

So if you're a buyer, you are waiting for prices to start going down.

This is your time.

So if you've been renting and you got that money put away, pay attention.

This is your time.

You want to get in where maybe you can get something that's going to be below market price for people that are hurrying.

And I think between now and the holidays is a great time, especially with people that are maybe trying to get rid of a house because they're moving, their job changed and they are having to.

I mean, I saw a neighbor just houses away.

She had her house up there for sale.

It's only seven years old.

But because national home builders less than a mile away are buying down points on, you know, on the homes.

What we're seeing here, and this is the crazy part, is some builders in my area are buying down 2 points.

So instead of 7, you're getting a 5% interest rate.

And that just competes when it's the same price as an existing home.

You can get new and you can get, you know, a massive warranty and a better interest rate.

It's really hurting those existing home sales.

So be careful out there, guys.

Well, one thing I wanted to talk about here today, and this is Recalls.

This is what we do as well on the punch list.

And let's talk about it.

There are our usual subjects here.

This is toys.

We're talking mattresses.

If you bought a mattress online, like here's one here.

Z, C, K1 recalls key, sub, K, E, Y, P E, S, Y, U, P Mattress violating the manner.

You know, the mandatory stuff.

No, you know, no mattress flammability stuff was met here.

So again, 48,405 of these guys don't buy these online mattresses.

You're seeing these things show up all over the place.

If you can head over to cpsc.gov you'll find it there.

And there's a lot of information on that.

There's another mattress style home where recalls Emmer Spring mattresses due to risk of serious injury or death from fire hazard.

There's only 263 of those, but that's from style homework.

And then ZN Home recalls when X mattress due to a serious injury, death from fire hazard.

About 792 of those.

I like buying local.

I watch my mattresses get made.

I know what they're making, I know what they're doing.

And buying these Chinese mattresses is just asking for health issues, in my opinion.

I think that there could be a lot of problems with that.

So be careful.

Another recall, inmo international technology limited recalls im no air 3 smart glasses due to serious injury or death from burn hazard.

The left temple of the recalled smart glasses can overheat during extended use where it could cause a burn hazard.

So there's about 16, 16, 43 and 120 sold in Canada.

That's a big one.

Blue Cactus Co. Reclining chair battery packs recalled due to fire and burn hazards sold on Amazon.

There's 51,000 of those and tons of different battery packs.

Furniture that's not attached to the wall.

You know the story.

We talk about it every week.

So that's one there.

Lots of kids toys, a lot of bicycling helmets.

JK Max recalls heated blankets and heating pads due to fire burn hazard.

They didn't build the elements in the blankets where they couldn't overheat.

There's 195,000 of those.

So if you look at your controller and it says JK Max on it could be an issue.

Another one, Sauna 360s recalls infrared saunas, hybrid infrared saunas and infrared kits due to risk of serious injury or death from fire or burn hazards, infrared panels in the saunas and kits can short circuit, causing them to overheat.

There's about 41,580 of those.

They will send you a repair kit and again, many more pressure washers without a GFCI on it.

And then Char Broil recalls these tiny bistro Poll Pro electric grills due to risk of electric shock.

And Hayward Industries recalls universal pool heaters due to risk of injury or death from carbon monoxide poisoning.

There's about 4,600 of those.

And Frederick Air Conditioning recalls their cool window air conditioners due to risk of serious injury or death from fire or burn hazards.

That's the control board, 2,000 of those out there.

So be careful, guys.

Those are the ones that we haven't talked about.

And again, those can be a serious issue out there.

We got a great show coming up this weekend on around the House.

Make sure you follow us.

I posted some new videos up, got a brand new generator that I did a review on that's great for tailgating and camping.

I just tried it out this weekend when I was camping at Rock the Locks.

I tell you what, it was awesome.

And a new barbecue grill that is portable if you're going camping or if you're tailgating.

This is the one single person lifted off and it is amazing.

So take a look on YouTube.

We've got those two videos up there.

Got some great reviews for those.

All right everybody, have a great rest of the week.

I'm resting my voice a little bit, but we'll see on Saturday.

Thanks for tuning in to around the House.

Thanks for tuning in to the around the House show.

Make sure you subscribe on your favorite way to catch podcasts.

Also, be sure to subscribe to our new YouTube channel and you can find it at around the House HQ and ring that bell for updates.

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And Seeds.

Getting beauty ribs Acting your age don't make a good story.

Knock one back, no bugs, no worry.

No one ever talks about the shots they didn't take.

Drinks.