The financial news that actually matters
The last time many Americans fired up the grill for Memorial Day, a pound of boneless sirloin steak cost roughly $10. This year, that same cut averages $12.74 a pound at U.S. grocery stores, the highest price the Bureau of Labor Statistics has ever recorded. Ground beef sits at $6.70 a pound, also an all-time…
A borrower earning $45,000 a year with $35,000 in federal student loan debt could pay roughly $350 to $400 a month under the government’s default repayment schedule. Under an income-driven plan, that same borrower might owe closer to $150 to $200. The difference is real, and it kicks in on July 1, 2025, when the…
The national housing market just posted its weakest price growth in nearly 15 years. Median home prices rose only 0.5% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, landing at $404,300, according to the National Association of Realtors’ quarterly metro report released in early May. According to NAR’s historical quarterly series, that is the…
Two years ago, nearly half of all mortgaged homes in the United States qualified as “equity-rich,” a term the property data firm ATTOM uses when an owner owes less than 50% of the home’s estimated market value. In the first quarter of 2025, that share dropped to 43.3%, the lowest level since 2021 and a…
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.37% for the week ending May 8, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. That marks the second consecutive weekly increase, erasing a month of modest declines that had briefly given spring buyers some breathing room. Meanwhile, fed-funds futures now price in zero Federal Reserve rate cuts…
A homeowner in Cape Coral, Florida, who bought at the 2022 peak may now owe more than the house would fetch on the open market. That scenario, once unthinkable in a state that minted equity for years, is playing out across multiple Florida metros at the same time the rest of the country is barely…
The average monthly payment on a new car loan in the United States has reached $773, according to Edmunds’ quarterly auto financing data. In 2018, that figure was $506. The 53% jump did not happen because Americans suddenly developed a taste for gold-plated bumpers. It happened because vehicle prices climbed, interest rates roughly doubled, and…
A retired engineer in Dallas who earned six figures for 30 years and waited until 70 to claim Social Security might collect more than $61,000 a year from the program. Under a proposal now circulating in Washington, that check would be cut by roughly $11,000, capped at $50,000 annually, with no change for the vast…
When a Fort Myers, Florida, homeowner locked in a 3.2% fixed-rate mortgage in 2021, her monthly payment was supposed to stay predictable for 30 years. It didn’t. After her insurer pulled out of the state following Hurricane Ian, her replacement policy came in at nearly triple the original premium. Her escrow payment jumped more than…
A retired teacher in Texas who spent 30 years in a classroom and a decade in private-sector jobs before that might have seen her Social Security check cut by hundreds of dollars a month. A former firefighter in Ohio collecting a state pension could have watched his spousal benefit disappear entirely. For decades, two federal…