The financial news that actually matters
Renters searching for a one-bedroom apartment in New York City now face a median asking price above $4,000 a month, a threshold the city had never hit before. The milestone, recorded in lease data compiled by Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman, lands at a moment when vacancy rates remain near historic lows and new housing…
Fraudsters posing as bank employees are calling older Americans, walking them step by step through dismissing legitimate fraud alerts, and directing them to send money through Zelle before the bank can intervene. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimated that over $800 million in losses accumulated at three of the country’s largest banks, and a Senate…
Millions of Americans who buy their own health insurance through Affordable Care Act marketplaces could face dramatically higher costs in 2027. UnitedHealthcare of New York, Inc. has asked state regulators to approve a 52.1% premium increase for its individual market plans starting January 1, 2027, the largest request among carriers in the state’s newly published…
American grocery shoppers are paying more than double what they spent on ground coffee just six years ago. The average price for a pound of 100 percent ground roast coffee has reached $9.46, a 123 percent increase from the $4.174 recorded in January 2020. That jump, tracked through the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price…
Homebuyers waiting for relief on borrowing costs will have to keep waiting. The Federal Open Market Committee held its target rate at 3-1/2 to 3-3/4 percent when it issued its latest policy statement on June 17, 2026, and minutes from earlier meetings show a growing number of officials weighing the case for raising rates rather…
A former Clearwater, Florida, investment adviser named Mathew Muratori was sentenced to 20 years in prison for stealing more than $152,000 from an elderly client. The sentence, handed down in a state prosecution, involved a scheme built on impersonation, fake digital accounts, and unauthorized transfers. A separate but parallel federal case produced the same 20-year…
Every American now has the right to pull a free credit report from each of the three nationwide bureaus every single week, not just once a year. The Federal Trade Commission confirmed this change through a consumer alert, making permanent a policy that first took effect as a temporary pandemic-era measure. The shift matters because…
Families with children born between 2025 and 2028 face a deadline-driven decision this summer: file a one-page federal form or leave $1,000 in government money on the table. The U.S. Department of the Treasury will begin depositing a one-time $1,000 pilot contribution into Trump Accounts for eligible children starting July 4, 2026, but the money…
Americans lost $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, according to the Federal Trade Commission, with government-impersonator schemes alone accounting for $789 million of that total. Behind much of the damage sits a simple, repeatable trick: a stranger calls, texts, or emails with an urgent demand, then steers the target toward a wire transfer or a…
Homebuyers shopping for a mortgage in early 2024 face a familiar but high-stakes calculation: whether to pay cash upfront at closing in exchange for a lower interest rate over the life of the loan. Federal regulators define one discount point as one percent of the loan amount, so on a $100,000 mortgage that single point…