How Credit Unions And Impact Capital Can Unlock Housing Affordability

Housing affordability isn’t just a headline; it’s the daily reality of members who earn good incomes and still can’t clear the down payment and payment hurdles for the home they actually need. We sit down with Eric Berg, co-founder of Duome, to unpack a practical idea that fits the credit union ethos: add a new tool alongside the 30-year mortgage so more buyers can reach homeownership without turning the process into a grant scramble.

We walk through how Duome operates as a CUSO and why its model differs from down payment assistance. A member qualifies for a credit union mortgage for a large share of the purchase, then Duome brings impact capital to co-invest in the remaining portion through a tenant-in-common shared equity structure. That means mission-aligned investors like community foundations and nonprofits can put dollars to work locally, and the homeowner can buy sooner, build equity, and share appreciation when the home sells while still controlling the home’s day-to-day decisions.

We also zoom out to the bigger housing market forces: the multi-million-home supply shortage, why new construction often can’t pencil today’s median prices below, and how helping families “move up” can free starter-home inventory for the next buyer. If you work in mortgage lending, credit unions, housing policy, or community development, you’ll hear concrete language you can use to explain co-ownership, impact investing, and affordability options to real people.

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Transcript

30 Second Intro

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Acuma, its board of directors, its management staff, or its members. The podcast discussion presented is conversational in nature and for general information only.

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SPEAKER_05 0:29

This is Actives On Point Podcast. On today's episode, we dive into probably one of the hottest topics facing our industry today, affordability. But before we get to our episode, just a quick word from our sponsor.

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RocketPro helps credit unions grow their mortgage business at zero cost by delivering a member-focused, fully white-labeled mortgage experience. RocketPro integrates seamlessly with your brand, team, and existing channels, strengthening member relationships while driving acquisition and retention. Built specifically for financial institutions, the scalable platform delivers a modern digital lending experience without disrupting core systems, while credit unions retain full ownership of their people, data, and processes. Powered by secure, compliance-first AI, Rocket Pro streamlines workflows, reduces origination costs, and improves efficiency, helping credit unions better serve members today.

SPEAKER_05 1:41

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, hello and welcome to Aquaman's On Point Podcast, a series focused on sharing the stories of people making a positive impact in the credit union mortgage industry. I'm your host, Peter Benjamin. Today I am joined by Eric Berg, co-founder with DuoMe. Eric, how are you doing today? I'm good, Peter. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. Good to be here. My pleasure. Uh, excited to have you here. Like I said, you know, uh affordability, and I know it's really a blanket term I just threw out there, but more specifically housing affordability, truly, you know, a hot topic, one of the hottest topics facing, you know, not just you know the credit union side of the mortgage industry, the entire housing ecosystem as a whole, you know, and you know, I really want to provide, you know, bring you on and to provide a little bit more context on the the amazing things that you're doing over at Do Home, but also possibly you know, start focusing on some ideas that that you may have to try to solve that affordability issue. But you know, we'll we'll we'll get to that in a second. Uh, but as always, before we get too much further, I have to pull Justin in. Justin Hawk, please tell us the latest and greatest happening over at Acmo, and I keep always forgetting. How are you doing today? I'm good, Peter. How are you? Living the dream, man.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

Just living the dream. I love it. Well, you know, uh, here we are. What are we almost halfway through the year? I cannot believe that. But uh, we just got back from our last in-person event for the first half of the year. So it's not our last in-person event. So don't let's not confuse everyone. Oh, seriously. We still got one more big one called Make Your Mark, you know, coming up. Red shoulder. It's been fun and it's been busy. Um, I think we've had a lot of great memories from our event so far. You know, any takeaways from you? What was your favorite?

SPEAKER_05 3:38

Uh I really loved you know the the the private rodeo that we had in Dallas. Um I loved the brewery tour at Anheuser Busch. Still disappointed, they wouldn't let me ride to Clydesdale. Um, I was even wearing my cowboy boots, uh, trying to, you know, look the part, um, but they wouldn't let me. And you know, you know, we went to Baltimore and you know, you know, the the Maryland boy and me was just thrilled to welcome our members to to I'm gonna call it my state, but I know also know that you live there. Uh I've been to open, you know, Guinness Open Gate, um I don't know, probably up five times. This was definitely my sixth time, but this is actually the first time I've ever gone and gotten the tour. Um, it's always sold out. So that was a fun experience for me. What about you?

SPEAKER_03 4:34

So a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_05 4:36

I mean, honestly, I did I you know it's you know, you know, it's it's been fun.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

Yeah, I mean the rodeo is cool. I haven't been to a rodeo since I was a kid um when I lived in Texas. Um, so I mean they kind of brought back some old school memories. Uh the smell was not there, so that was nice. It did not smell like a typical rodeo, which um everybody was curious about. Like everybody asked me that. They were like, didn't it stink? And I was like, no, it was actually well ventilated.

SPEAKER_05 5:01

So, so so real quick on the smell, and I'm sorry to interrupt you, but so I I've been, you know, that that trip more specifically. I went from Dallas, I got home for a day, and then I flew out to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta straight to Tampa, right? And so it's pretty much two straight weeks of travel. And so pretty much when I got home, I I took all of my clothes and just, you know, I grabbed a new, you know, white shirt, I grabbed the new button-down white shirt, I grabbed the new um, you know, button-down blue shirt, but you know, the jackets and the jeans, of course, new underwear and all that jazz. But they were all the same, right? When I went from Dallas to um Atlanta and Tampa. I put on one outfit uh when I was in Atlanta, and I was like, what the heck is that smell? And I was like, this is this, these are the same jeans I wore to the rodeo. And I immediately took them off. I was like, yeah, they're going straight into the laundry bag. I have to get these things washed. Like they I don't I don't serious. They definitely definitely stuck on me.

SPEAKER_03 6:08

But anyways, well I didn't wear them. Yeah, that was fun. Um, I missed, I missed uh St. Louis, so I didn't get to see you try to write a Clyde still, but uh I heard great things and I get to see all the great pictures, so it was amazing, I'm sure. And then um Baltimore. Um anytime we get to go to Baltimore, it's so much fun. I don't know, be more hon. Yeah, well, you know, that's how you guys say it because you're locals, and for me it's weird. But yeah, so other than that, um looking forward to the next half the year. I think we have a lot in store. So uh we have our make our your our make your mark annual conference coming up in September. Um that's gonna be in Las Vegas this year. Registration is open. So if you haven't seen the emails that have come out on that, or if you haven't gotten registered yet, there's still plenty of time. Um for our networks, we have our YPN uh network taking place today. Uh, they're having their quarterly meeting at one o'clock Eastern. So the Cameron and the other network leads have a great session planned. Um next week we'll have our volume-based uh quarterly network meeting. That one's happening on May 20th at 1 p.m. Eastern. Um, so again, there's still time to register for both those. Head over to the Acime website to learn more and to get registered. And then if you're looking for other stuff, our inside track webinars, our on-point podcasts, those are dropping a couple dropping a couple times a month. And all that can also be found on our website. You say dropping. Droppling, uh, you know.

SPEAKER_05 7:36

It's I told you it's been a long five months. I'm tired too. Well, anyways, thank you very much. And you know, as always, you know, crab cakes and football, that's what Maryland does best. Um but yeah. Yep. Uh crab cakes, yeah. And lacrosse, I'll say lacrosse, lacrosse capital of the world of the world. Anyway, thank you very much, Justin. All right, Eric, pulling you back in. Um, so you know, we're gonna talk affordability, but you know, I I always start the pop start and end with the same two questions. Um, you know, and it kind of goes back to the the the root and heart of this podcast, which is you know that that people piece. You know, we originally set out what Justin three years ago at this point, um you know, trying to solve uh an issue. And that and that issue was you can look at all of these different podcasts that focus on housing or mortgage or whatever, and and they're great podcasts, and I'm not saying anything negative about these podcasts. I heck I listened to several of them, but they often leave out our side of the industry when it comes to mortgage, and that's the credit union space, right? And and I I firmly believe that it's people like you know in this credit union space um who are making such amazing differences within their communities and our industry that we we needed a podcast dedicated to highlighting them. And so you know that kind of brings me to you know the first question. Now that I'm kind of giving you the backstory behind the pod, you know, that that people piece, the need to say, hey, credit unions are are really out there making a difference, and we have special people doing it. So the first question is is really what who is Eric Byrd? You know, and really what drives you, what motivates you, what keeps you going, um, you know, especially for those who don't know who you are. And I think it's important for us to start there. So, real quick, you know, who is Eric Byrd?

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Yeah, well, thanks, Peter. I um yeah, my background is is rather interesting. I I came out of school um and I have actually have a design degree, right? And so I came out of school and I built my first company, which was a brand development company. And the work that I was involved with with that company, um, I got I was fortunate enough to be able to uh work with a number of uh NFL teams, uh including here in Minneapolis, the the Vikings, which were a largest client of ours. We handled all the brand development, their marketing. Um, and it was a really fun opportunity to be involved with a product that had so much uh customer affinity, right? I mean fans and the affinity side of things was which was great. And uh in the process of developing that brand or continuing to develop that brand, obviously it was a brand that already existed for many years, but uh a chance to to reinvigorate the brand uh a little bit. I also brought to the table uh some products that we built from the brand. So products that were generating revenue for the organization uh on an annual basis, somewhere in the eight, nine, ten million dollar uh ARR uh for the team. Did the same, you did some of the same things with the Packers and some other organizations as well. Um I got to the point, Peter, where I just realized that I was having a blast. I was enjoying my time, uh, really loved um owning a company that was so involved with something so high visible and and um highly visible and so uh, you know, such an important part of our culture. Uh, but I was also realizing that I was, you know, I was helping uh people that had billions of dollars make millions of dollars more. And so what I did is I pivoted my company uh from a brand development company into a venture studio. Uh this the goal of the venture studio was to take the same ideas that we had in developing uh products that uh were helping fans in this case or helping the team grow in revenue and apply that to everyday people. What products could we build that helped everyday people uh improve their lives? Uh and that was the goal of the Venture Studio when we first launched it. One of the uh first products we were involved with it, and I got connected with uh local credit union here in the Twin Cities, um, Blaze Credit Union, Spire was their name at the time, uh, reached out to me and asked if uh we could build a couple of products together. Um I had been a credit union member uh my uh whole adult life, uh, and I thought it was great. Uh, loved what Spire had as part of a brand. Um, and uh we began to partner on a couple of projects, which eventually led us to building uh a fintech giving product in the credit union space uh called NetGiver. We built that product uh six or seven years ago now. Um and so really um our whole team was drinking the Kool-Aid, uh, the credit union Kool-Aid. And that's uh how we got to being involved with credit unions on a on a very uh personal basis, uh, and and one that um also drives the, I guess you could say uh drives us every day, gets us going every day, the ability to help people, the the creating philosophy of people helping people uh aligned with our venture studio and what we were trying to do from the venture studio perspective and creating products that helped everyday people. So the alignment was really great, and um we're continuing to partner with uh with uh Blaze Credit Union and our credit unions here uh locally as well as around the country on Matt Giver and and now uh on the do ohm side of things with uh housing affordability.

unknown 13:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:28

Yeah, and one, I I I I love that that story. And I know that you and I have talked, you know, a few times before this conversation, you know, not just about you know this podcast, but you know, really about doom. You know, and and I and ultimately I I love that your your main focus is you know when you came and had that that think tank was how do we start making positive impacts in people's lives, right? I mean, in a nutshell. You know, and and and I love how it really evolved to to do. And and you know, I'm familiar with duo, um, and I'm gonna ask that you kind of explain what duo is, but man, when you talk about trying to make a positive impact in people's lives, you know, there's no greater impact that, and again, this is my personal opinion, there's but there's no greater impact that you can make on someone's life than helping them buy their their first home or even staying in their their current home. And I think that's where you know the the idea of of this conversation and and the the desire to spread the word about doom a bit more kind of kind of came from is that you know credit unions are in the community, you know, we have this, you know, we were really established, what, 1935 with the idea of supporting affordable housing, affordable affordable lending within the community, our communities, and and here you are truly trying to solve that what uh 90 plus years later. Um so do me a favor, walk us through DuoM a bit more for those that don't know.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Yeah. Um so DuoM is a platform that brings together a homeowner that's looking to buy a home. And typically those are folks that are making good money, they're in your community, they um are contributing, but they're just just outside of the ability to afford the home that they actually need. Um and you know, we've unpacked a number of different folks, and we can talk about those folks later on that are in this uh in this category. Um, but uh uh the platform is designed to bring those folks together along with a credit union mortgage, uh, and they qualify, they have to qualify for three quarters of the value of a mortgage, and then do ohm comes in and we provide impact capital to invest in the other portion of the mortgage, whether that's 25% or all the way up to about 45% of the of the purchase of the home. So that means that the credit union uh provides a mortgage of, you know, let's say it's uh 55% and do ohm comes in and invests in the other half of the home, uh, the capital necessary to be able to complete the purchase. Uh we act as kind of that rich aunt that you might think about. Like if you uh uh if a young couple is looking to buy a home and and they just can't afford uh the$400,000 house, the rich aunt can come to them and say, listen, I'll tell you what, I'll put$200,000 down on the house as as my portion of the purchase of the of the house. You go get a mortgage with your credit union, uh, and um and over time we will share in the upside. So when you go to sell that$400,000 house for$500,000, we'll split it uh based on um the ownership of this. And so that's DuoM uh in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_05 17:00

And so correct me if I'm wrong, DuoM is a QSO, right? Um Duom is a QSO, yep. That's doom is a QSO, right? So now so so the funding for for this, you know, is this would you consider this more like uh uh you know a grant or down payment assistance? Like what how is this how is that that doom portion structured?

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Yeah, and it's a great question because there are obviously grants that are out there, there are obviously down payment assistance programs that are out there, and those are all necessary. We'll talk about all of this stuff in this conversation, Peter. I'm sure all the different solutions that are out there. But no, this is actually impact capital. This is impact investment dollars. So think about your community foundations, the nonprofits in your uh in your area uh that are looking to also come in and help solve housing affordability. They have a choice. Uh, they can issue a grant to a homeowner, and the homeowner can use that grant. And sometimes those are loans, and sometimes they're modified loans, and sometimes they're no interest loans, sometimes they're just grants that they give away and then that don't get paid back. But impact capital is different. Impact investing or program-related investment dollars are designed to have a bit of a return on them. So what we're doing is we're working with these community organizations and allowing them to invest in the fund uh in these communities, that then those funds are invested uh together with that homeowner in the home that they purchase, uh, and then provides a return back to that fund uh and then to our fund uh impact investors once the house sells or as uh or as the revenue generates uh over time. So it is not a grant um and it's not a fur, it's not a necessarily a first-time home buyer assistance program. It is simply a co-ownership model that is uh using impact capital to provide that uh that those funds for co-ownership.

SPEAKER_05 18:56

Okay, so you have like these these other nonprofits, you have these other community development program uh community programs that are coming to do them, investing in in the platform, and let's say yeah, Minneapolis. Um, you you'll you may have a nonprofit or some community uh platform within the Minneapolis area. They invest in this this this duo fund, and within that that duom fund, people in the the Minneapolis area come to you and you can provide that needed support. Is that that kind of sort of what I'm understanding?

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Yeah, the platform does exactly that. So a homeowner comes in, finds out uh about DuoM uh and takes a look at what they qualify for because they the they'll qualify with a credit union partner mortgage. So let's say that's Blaze, they qualify for three-quarters of the value of the home, and then they can access, they can uh uh request access to um through the platform for DuOM to be able to fund the other portion of their purchase. And it's a tenant-in-common relationship. So um the fund itself is a tenant in common with the homeowner uh of the home. And the homeowner has full control over their home uh and um you know, whether they want to paint the house, whether they want to uh uh redo the yard, when they want to sell, when they want to refinance, that's all up to the homeowner in the relationship.

SPEAKER_05 20:28

You know, the the obviously and you know the lender in me is just thinking about this, you know, obviously the way that investment that investor or or that that that nonprofit gets repaid is at that sale, right? So let's say what most people are keeping their houses, what, seven years right now? Um thank you, three percent interest rates. Um, really after that seven years, based off of the the appreciation, how much that you know that that that that property has grown in value, that that nonprofit is kind of repaid in with in that based off of that, correct?

SPEAKER_02 21:08

That's correct. And there is a small participation fee that the homeowner pays each month as a part of that as well. And that's a little bit of the revenue back to the fund, too. And that participation fee is tied to the to the tenant and common agreement, which allows the homeowner to have full access to the house and make all the decisions that they want to make within the house. But ultimately, yes, it is the the appreciation of the home. It's the investment in the asset itself uh that helps return the dollars to the to the fund and to the fund investors.

SPEAKER_05 21:34

I mean, this is awesome. It really is. Um I you know, admittedly, you know, I you know, some of these, uh you know, I I kind of had a feeling that this is the direction that that that duo was going to go. Um, but obviously it's always important to talk about it. Now, but let's kind of you know go back and jump in.

SPEAKER_03 21:51

Yeah, by all means, dude. Yeah. Um, so I I'm just curious because I think this is a phenomenal product uh or a phenomenal uh offering that you have. Um how like how many states are you operating in? Like how many, I I don't know how specific we want to be about that, but like how many states, how many, like how many credit unions do you work with that you know people could potentially work with doom?

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Yeah, and and that's a great question, Justin. We are and we're we're a brand new CUSO. Um, and we specifically uh have um chosen to uh build the QSO in uh markets in which credit union partnerships exist uh uh with us, right? And and that's obviously a very important part. We're not working with other mortgage providers for this. This is a credit union mortgage product. So in each community that we're we're working with, uh we're establishing the relationship with the with the credit union as well as then uh those uh impact investors within that community. So um right now we are uh we are in the process of uh launching in areas uh all across the country. Um but as you can imagine, this will be a uh a community by community uh process. So uh as we look to really grow into what we will eventually be, I would expect that you know in the first in the next uh year or so, we will be um in you know probably four or five different markets uh around the country. And that'll be the kind of thing that uh that once we make an announcement in a market, um, you know, we we do expect uh to to be able to make quite an impact in those markets that we're that we're in. Um right now, obviously, we're working out of the Twin Cities. Um uh our partner, uh our lead strategic investor is uh WSECU and one Washington Financial out in the Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle area. Uh and so we're working with credit unions out uh out in that area. Uh and we've got several other ones that uh are on uh on track to uh come on board as well here shortly.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

No, that's very cool.

SPEAKER_05 24:01

So and good question, Justin. So obviously, I you know, I kind of started this conversation with the idea of, okay, well, we're let's let's discuss affordability, right? And yeah, I don't know if if this affordability crisis pandemic, however you want to frame it up, is is going to get better anytime soon. You know, what when you look at you know, the average home price in 2010, it was like less than 200,000, you know, and here we are, you know, 2026, you know, the average home price is what 450? You know, that's what well over a 200% increase uh from 2010 to 2026. And so obviously there's there's no end in sight to this affordability issue, you know, and obviously, you know, uh you know, doom is is one way to kind of solve this and help people, you know, get into the house of their dreams. But you know, when you think of, you know, Eric, when you think about this issue and and what credit unions can do, or or even the outlook for affordability, you know, I'll let you take this, you know, any direction you want to go. How how how can we improve this? Again, it's it's all all right now it just seems like everything that we do is just a band-aid, right? But there has to be a way for us to start making positive strides in this affordability issue.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Yeah, and I think it's important to look back historically at you know, what has been the process that we've had to purchase homes in the past, right? I mean, it wasn't until what I believe the 1930s or 40s that a mortgage actually started to actually show up on the books, right? Before that, you had to come in and and you know find other ways of financing it. So the mortgage come uh came into play. And at that time, and even as even as uh as early as the early 1970s or so, you know, the the uh income to housing ratio was three to one, right? I mean, you could your your house basically could cost you fifteen thousand dollars and you made five thousand dollars a year. And that was and and the 30-year mortgage helped uh with that piece. Very few people could have walked into uh the closing and put down a check for$15,000 back in the early 1970s or late 60s uh to buy that to buy that house. Um and uh and some of those numbers obviously, you know, I'm making up numbers here a little bit, but ultimately that's part of what uh what we've done with a 30-year mortgage. So fast forward now to where we are, uh, what other tools are are needed to be involved with helping uh people be able to afford a place to live that actually fits their needs? And again, we're not talking about trying to, you know, put somebody into a home that, you know, somebody who makes uh$100,000 a year is not looking at buying a million-dollar home uh you know through our program. It really still is within the parameters of of how to uh uh of how uh housing should work in terms of uh the ability to get into something, grow that equity over time, and then be able to uh take, take the step into the next life cycle of housing. So it really is just a matter of bringing these tools uh to the uh to the uh table and allowing folks to be able to use them to uh achieve their goals, uh their financial goals as well as their long-term financial uh and potentially generational wealth uh for their family. So it really is um the kind of thing where, as we look at it, um just another tool in the toolkit. It needs to be a new tool that's involved and partnered with the 30-year mortgage right now, but it really does become the kind of thing where um it's it's uh uh it's it's just one of those tools.

SPEAKER_05 27:53

It's interesting, right? So it's like you know, you you kind of sort of mentioned like that, that you know, the 1930s, right? You know, and and not everyone had, you know, it was tough to have that down payment even back then. You know, it's it's obviously not getting bigger. And it you know, it's you also have to I I often question this to myself. I don't I don't voice it. But if you think about it, in less than 100 years, right, we we've gone from being able to basically buy a house in the Sears catalog, right? You know, and you could build it for all intents and purposes anywhere, we'll say on average 75,000. You could build a Sears catalog house for 75,000, you know, 100 years ago, 1930, we'll say. You know, and here we are. I understand that the average home price in in the United States right now is 450,000, but yeah, uh I I don't know where that house is in the DC area, in the Maryland area, right? You you're really looking at 700,000, 800,000, right? You know, it's and then when you look at you know what you know income improvements, right? I I mentioned earlier that you know home prices from 2010 to 2026 have increased what 250% income has only increased I think 95% in that same time frame, right? You know, I don't see an end in sight for this ever, right? But as as credit unions, I I I think by and this is just me kind of getting on a soapbox, by by as the credit union person in me is really just saying we have to do whatever we possibly can to make that blow just a little bit easier for for our members, you know, and and referring them to a duo, right? Um just in a side question. When they have the duo, you know, when they partner with duo, is that 100% financing? When it's all said and done, like 100% CLTB, combined loan to value.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

Yeah, I mean, I think what we're what we require from the credit union is to write the mortgage as they would if the rich aunt was coming in and putting the the uh money down. So um, you know, if they want to if if they're looking at doing that from uh the perspective of um the full value of the home, uh we we really think that it really comes down to the situation that that works best for the for the homeowner uh in that case. So um our investment in the home as a tenant common uh is is I think separate from the mortgage. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 31:01

But it if the if the credit unit right uh is is provides the loan for 70%, doom could easily do that 30%, correct?

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Oh yeah, yeah, doom will do the between 25% and up to 45% of the value of the home. Correct.

SPEAKER_05 31:16

Yeah. Yeah. And and so and and so kind of going back to what I was saying, like you know, doom is really just that that that that tool that we need to have or that that error we need to have in our our our quiver, but along with you know down payment assistant programs or um you know grants or or or some type of closing cost assistance, because you said it yourself. I mean, not everyone has that you know, 60, what now really more like$100,000 to put down, right? It's it's really astronomical, but then you also have closing costs, and you know, closing costs can easily be$20,000, and that's still a lot of money. So yeah, I don't see an end in sight, but we we need to have these options like do them, like down payment assistance, like grants, like closing cost assistance. We need to have something out there for people. I don't know the answer. I don't. Rates aren't gonna get any better. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

I think I think it's a perfect soup of, I mean, you we have to bring all these solutions to the table, right? And and each individual homeowner is gonna, you know, whether they have a down payments, down payment assistance uh grant, or whether that's a uh special way of configuring the loan, or some credit unions now are doing uh you know 0% down, uh, and some are even covering closing costs. It really is all to help homeowners get into the home that best fits their needs. And do home is just another part of this. And Peter, the the the biggest issue we have right now um in the studies that we've done with housing affordability is that the US is between four and seven million homes short, depending on who you talk to, uh, in the US. And uh the problem is, and we're the reason why that that median home price right now is around that$415,000,$420,000 range across the country, is because in most parts of the country, you can't build a home for less than that, right? So if we're gonna actually um take a supply and demand and reduce the amount of um of or increase the amount of supply, uh we need to build homes. And if that's the price to build it at, and of course, there's a number of other factors that that are there. Um, but let's just take the construction costs, the cost of materials, those kinds of things right now. If that's the price to build the home, um, then we need to be able to uh provide a platform that takes somebody who's living in a$290,000 home that is that no longer fits their needs and provide them the ability to move from that home up to the home that just got built, the new home that just got built, so that it frees up the$290,000 home for the next homeowner that is maybe coming out of a rental uh or coming out of living in an apartment, whatever it might be, so that they can get into that two-bedroom, you know, one-car garage home where the, you know, um, where the person, where the family just moved out of that just outgrew that home. So it is really about taking the lid off of that a little bit as well. Um the rest of the NINBY and homeowner association uh complications and insurance issues are kind of always gonna be there. But if we if we're able to build more homes and provide the ability for homeowners to to move to those homes, it will it will take the pressure off a little bit uh when it comes to to the overall uh uh cost of housing. Now, having said that, none of us uh either on this call or listening to this call are gonna volunteer to have the value of our house decrease, right? I mean, we nobody wants to sit there and go, well, listen, I'll tell you what, I'll, you know, I'll forfeit 25% of the value of my home just for the greater good of everybody else. So that's the other part of the of the economics here that we have to think about is you know, we all want to make an investment for the future. It doesn't need to grow, you know, 5x over 20 years like it has in the past, you know, several decades. But let's but let's take a look at how we can do this. And and and does that slow a little bit and does that provide more opportunities for people to get into homes that they that they wouldn't have otherwise been able to get into? And that's really the key for us to not become a nation of renters, uh, and therefore a nation that no longer goes to the credit unions to get a mortgage. Keep in mind that's the important part of this from the credit unions perspective as well. We want to be able to provide solutions that keep people uh on the path to home ownership and uh on the path to that generational welfare we talked about earlier.

SPEAKER_05 35:50

Question on Duum. You kind of go and then it also ties back to you know new construction and building would do um is doom okay with like a new construction. So if I want to to build my house, right, to kind of I mean granted, I know building a house, you know, is for all intents and purposes, you know, what 30% more expensive than than buying the existing, but if inventory is the issue, is part of the issue, if I wanted to build my house and I did it in an affordable way, would do them back that that that construction loan.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

Yes. I mean, what well it will it'll back the mortgage for that, right? I mean, I think uh the construction loan is a would be a little bit different, but I think when it comes to um uh providing the the financing or providing the co-investment in the home, absolutely. I mean, that's part of what we look at as as being something that um will help uh solve this problem. And keeping in mind, of course, Peter, the other part of this is not, you know, it's not to help somebody who doesn't need the help to get into that home. It's really that, it's really that family that maybe is living in that$290,000 house and they've got the ability to go buy a brand new build at$414,000. They qualify for, you know,$330,000, but they can't qualify after the$419 that the new home builder has uh that that house listed at. So it really becomes, okay, now they come to the credit union, they qualify for that$330,000, and Duom comes in and participates with them uh and co-owns that home with them uh in that new in that new uh neighborhood or the new construction.

unknown 37:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 37:38

Awesome.

SPEAKER_05 37:39

You know, Eric, here's the tough part about this podcast. You know, you know, we we we we aim for a certain time frame, and we are most certainly pushing that. Actually, we're a little bit over. Um, so I I I hate to have to transition uh to the second segment, but but I'm gonna make us do that. But before I do, I I promise that that second question that I always ask, um, and it really connects back to the the first one. Um, but yeah, the second question always is you know, what keeps you going and what keeps driving you every single day?

SPEAKER_02 38:16

Yeah, well, for me, it is it is the ability to help uh people achieve their dreams in a way that um, you know, uh, you know, when we but when we bid off housing affordability, it was it's a big bite. Look, we're not doing this on our own. This is why credit unions exist, this is why the cooperative model exists, this is why QSOs exist. Uh, we need to do this together. But that teamwork, that cooperation, that ability to uh work together to solve this problem, as big of a problem as it is, uh, that challenge is what keeps me going. And the challenge of being able to do that and work with the wonderful people in the credit union space that bringing are bringing ideas to the table every day that can help strengthen and fortify, you know, the the seed of the idea that we had and really grow this into something um uh substantial and that can help folks is the is the reason why I keep going. And and credit unions have been such a great partner in the things we've done in the past. Uh, we just foresee that happening or continuing to happen with uh with Dualman Housing Affordability as we as we really get this project rolling across the country. Okay, love that.

SPEAKER_05 39:26

Absolutely love that. Well, well, Eric, thank you very much. You know, as I mentioned, it's time to start transitioning to the second segment of the podcast. Now, this is where we sometimes do you know dad jokes, um, sometimes we play a little uh game of jeopardy, but today we're gonna do wrong answers only. So bear with me while I I pull the share with share with you my screen. What we're gonna do is is wrong answer only. So this is gonna be real quick. So Eric, you're gonna go, Justin, you're gonna go, and the goal is to answer as many questions as you possibly can as quick as possible. Okay, quick, quick, quick. So I'm gonna throw out a term and or a question. Um, and all I want you to do is just provide me with the wrong answers only. You have one minute to answer as many as you possibly can. Sound good? Yep. Sounds good. Eric, you're first. All right, so boy, okay. One minute, I'll read, you just answer. Okay? Okay. Here we go.

SPEAKER_04 40:29

Uh are you male? I'm a bird. I'm a bird. Are you playing a quiz? Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_05 40:40

What is a daffodil a type of? A whale. What is the capital of Scotland?

SPEAKER_04 40:49

The moon.

SPEAKER_05 40:52

Who is the other half of the duo? Bonnie and Michael Jackson. What color is Pink Panther? Orange. How many sides does the triangle have?

SPEAKER_02 41:09

My math teacher would be so proud of me. Sixteen.

SPEAKER_04 41:14

Something that flies. Justin. What color is a snowman? All the colors of the rainbow.

SPEAKER_05 41:28

How many letters is oh, all right, so you scored nine. Good job. All right, Justin, you're up.

SPEAKER_03 41:38

All right. How and I have that was a hard one to beat. He did really well.

SPEAKER_05 41:43

All right, Justin, you're up. Here we go. All right. Complete the film title. Free? Chicken? What language is spoken mostly in Spain? Mandarin. What shape is a Rubik's cube? Ooh, a circle. Which animal does Guangwa come from? Jackaloupe. Jackalope? Which units do you measure height in? Uh square meters. That's actually okay. How many D's are in the word fiddle? Uh seventeen. What color is a cow? Blue. What's the opposite of no? I don't know. What colors and what colors are orange juice? Red. What type of animal is Bambi? Can I say Jackalope again? Alright, so you it it time expired. But you also scored nine. Good job. Well, uh well, Eric, that brings us to the end of uh this round of wrong answers only. Thank you very much for for uh humoring us and playing along. Uh, but more importantly, thank you for for sitting down with us today and and and really sharing your thoughts on affordability. But uh and and I I know I said this to you before. I I truly enjoy watching what Duham is doing and learning more about it every single time. Uh so thank you for that as well.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

No, I appreciate your time, uh Peter. Thank you so much. Um, Justin, great to meet you. This was this was fun. Um, love learning uh and love uh just sharing what we're doing. So uh the more conversations we can have, the better off I think everybody is when it comes to uh addressing housing affordability. Couldn't agree more. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 43:47

And Justin, thank you very much. Of course, it was my pleasure. And to close out, thank you again to Rocket Pro for sponsoring today's episode. And to all of you, we know your time is valuable. Thank you for tuning in to the latest episode of Acuma's On Point Podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, be well, my friend.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time at the Acuma on Point Podcast. If not already, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating. For more great episodes and information, visit us online at Acuma.org. And to get the latest updates, head over to our LinkedIn page.