Warren Cohen, Author at The Financial Wire

Male bearded accountant and his secretary work together in modern apartment, pose on wooden floor and discuss financial report, have serious gaze in papers, study analytics, feel comfort at home

The 30-year mortgage rate sits at 6.28% today — and Fannie Mae’s new forecast now sees that rate holding near 6.3% through every quarter of 2026 and into 2027

Warren Cohen3 months ago3 months ago08 mins

Homebuyers hoping for meaningful relief on borrowing costs will have to keep waiting. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate sits at 6.28 percent, and Fannie Mae’s latest housing forecast projects that rate will hover near 6.3 percent through every quarter of 2026 and into 2027. That extended plateau, paired with home prices that continue to climb,…

The Fed’s preferred PCE inflation gauge ran 3.77% year over year in April — and core PCE at 3.29% still sits more than a point above the 2% target

Warren Cohen3 months ago3 months ago09 mins

American households still face prices rising nearly twice as fast as the Federal Reserve wants. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the PCE price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, climbed 3.8% from April 2025 to April 2026, while core PCE excluding food and energy rose 3.3% over the same period. Both readings sit…

A man sitting in the driver's seat of a bus

The 2026 IRS standard mileage rate stayed at 70 cents per business mile — a gig driver who logs 30,000 business miles a year deducts $21,000, saving about $4,620 at the 22% bracket

Warren Cohen3 months ago3 months ago09 mins

Self-employed drivers who rack up tens of thousands of business miles each year now have a slightly larger per-mile deduction to work with. The IRS set the 2026 optional standard mileage rate at 72.5 cents per business mile, effective January 1, 2026, up 2.5 cents from the 2025 rate. For a gig driver logging 30,000…

Parent PLUS borrowers have 26 days to consolidate — after June 30, they permanently lose every income-driven repayment plan and new loans jump to 9.07%

Warren Cohen3 months ago3 months ago09 mins

Parents who borrowed Federal Direct Parent PLUS Loans face a hard deadline: consolidate before June 30 or lose access to every income-driven repayment plan permanently. At the same time, new Parent PLUS loans disbursed starting July 1, 2026, will carry a fixed interest rate of 9.07 percent, the highest in over a decade. With the…

Rear View Of Loving Couple Looking At House

Mortgage refinance applications jumped 20% YoY in late May — homeowners who locked above 7% in 2023 are finally finding savings as the 30-year hovers at 6.57%

Warren Cohen3 months ago3 months ago08 mins

Homeowners who signed mortgage deals above 7% during the rate spike of 2023 are now finding real relief. Refinance applications climbed 20% compared with the same period a year earlier in late May, as the 30-year fixed rate settled near 6.57%. That gap of roughly half a percentage point or more between old and new…

Dollar on the background Federal Reserve Building in Washington DC United States FED

The Fed meets June 16 and 17 — markets price 97% odds of no rate cut, pinning today’s 6.57% mortgage rate and 21.5% credit card APR through the summer

Warren Cohen3 months ago3 months ago09 mins

Homebuyers shopping for a mortgage and consumers carrying credit card balances face the same problem this summer: borrowing costs are not going down. The Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting is scheduled for June 16 and 17, and futures markets assign a 97 percent probability that the central bank will leave interest rates unchanged. That expectation…

May private payrolls climbed 122,000 — the strongest month since January 2025 — and job-switchers’ pay grew 6.5% while workers who stayed got 4.4%

Warren Cohen3 months ago3 months ago010 mins

Private employers added 122,000 jobs in May, the largest single-month gain since January 2025, according to the ADP National Employment Report produced in collaboration with Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab. Workers who changed employers saw annual pay growth of 6.5 percent, while those who stayed in their current roles received 4.4 percent. That 2.1 percentage-point gap…

A closeup of medical expenses concept with a stethoscope calculator and US dollar bills on a medical billing statement depicting the financial aspect of healthcare

A federal court vacated the CFPB’s medical-debt credit-reporting ban last July — unpaid medical bills over $500 now still hit credit reports after a 12-month grace period across all three bureaus

Warren Cohen3 months ago3 months ago09 mins

Millions of Americans carrying unpaid medical bills lost a planned layer of credit-report protection after a federal court in Texas struck down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule that would have banned medical debt from appearing on consumer files. The Eastern District of Texas vacated the regulation, which had been published in the Federal Register…

A young boy and his grandfather sit closely at a kitchen table focused on reading through important documents

The 2026 federal gift-tax annual exclusion held at $19,000 per recipient — but a married couple can together give $38,000 to each child or grandchild federal tax-free

Warren Cohen3 months ago3 months ago09 mins

Families planning cash gifts to children or grandchildren in 2026 will work with the same per-recipient ceiling that applied in 2025. The IRS confirmed that the federal gift-tax annual exclusion for tax year 2026 stays at $19,000 per recipient, and a married couple electing to split gifts can transfer up to $38,000 to each donee…

Building of FED Federal Reserve Bank in Washington Concept of economy finance interest rate money

The Federal Reserve’s June Beige Book flagged “moderate to strong” price increases across most districts — driven by Middle East energy costs squeezing middle-income households hardest

Warren Cohen3 months ago3 months ago010 mins

American families earning between roughly $50,000 and $100,000 a year are absorbing the sharpest blow from a global energy shock that the Federal Reserve now describes in blunt terms. The Fed’s June 2026 Beige Book, released on June 3, reported that “prices increased at a moderate to strong pace overall,” with energy costs tied to…

Warren Cohen

The 30-year mortgage rate sits at 6.28% today — and Fannie Mae’s new forecast now sees that rate holding near 6.3% through every quarter of 2026 and into 2027

The Fed’s preferred PCE inflation gauge ran 3.77% year over year in April — and core PCE at 3.29% still sits more than a point above the 2% target

The 2026 IRS standard mileage rate stayed at 70 cents per business mile — a gig driver who logs 30,000 business miles a year deducts $21,000, saving about $4,620 at the 22% bracket

Parent PLUS borrowers have 26 days to consolidate — after June 30, they permanently lose every income-driven repayment plan and new loans jump to 9.07%

Mortgage refinance applications jumped 20% YoY in late May — homeowners who locked above 7% in 2023 are finally finding savings as the 30-year hovers at 6.57%

The Fed meets June 16 and 17 — markets price 97% odds of no rate cut, pinning today’s 6.57% mortgage rate and 21.5% credit card APR through the summer

May private payrolls climbed 122,000 — the strongest month since January 2025 — and job-switchers’ pay grew 6.5% while workers who stayed got 4.4%

A federal court vacated the CFPB’s medical-debt credit-reporting ban last July — unpaid medical bills over $500 now still hit credit reports after a 12-month grace period across all three bureaus

The 2026 federal gift-tax annual exclusion held at $19,000 per recipient — but a married couple can together give $38,000 to each child or grandchild federal tax-free

The Federal Reserve’s June Beige Book flagged “moderate to strong” price increases across most districts — driven by Middle East energy costs squeezing middle-income households hardest

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