The financial news that actually matters
The spring housing market was supposed to thaw. It barely moved. Existing-home sales inched up just 0.2% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors. That gain is so small it amounts to statistical noise. Yet the median sale price climbed to $417,800, the…
Tens of millions of Americans paid IRS penalties during the pandemic. A growing body of legal analysis suggests many of those charges were wrong, and the federal government may owe that money back. But the window to claim it is closing fast: most affected taxpayers must file a refund request by July 10, 2026, or…
A family buying a new refrigerator this spring will pay about $75 more than they would have two years ago, mostly because of tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Multiply that kind of increase across vehicles, laptops, home wiring, canned goods and medical devices, and the cumulative hit reaches roughly $1,500 a year for the…
Roughly 13 out of every 100 credit card accounts in the United States are now past due, and the man nominated to lead the Federal Reserve has made one thing clear: lower interest rates are not coming to the rescue. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for…
The price of grilling steak just set a record, and the timing could not be worse for backyard hosts. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average retail price for uncooked beef steaks hit $12.74 per pound in its April 2026 reading, the highest level ever recorded in the agency’s price-tracking program, which stretches…
Britain is preparing to send a Type 45 destroyer, Typhoon fighter jets, and unmanned surface vessels to the Persian Gulf as part of a multinational military coalition assembled to force open the Strait of Hormuz, the 21-mile-wide chokepoint between Iran and Oman through which a large share of the world’s traded oil flows every day….
The $56 raise was supposed to help. When roughly 72.5 million Social Security beneficiaries saw their January 2026 checks, a 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment had been folded in, lifting the average retired worker’s monthly payment from about $2,015 to $2,071, according to the Social Security Administration. Five months later, that raise is functionally gone. Consumer…
College students borrowing federal loans for the first time this fall will pay more for the privilege than almost any freshman class in the past decade. Starting July 1, new Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized undergraduate loans will carry a fixed interest rate of 6.52%, the steepest rate offered to incoming borrowers since the 2024-2025 award…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress on May 12 that the United States has lost 39 aircraft in its war with Iran and that the conflict has cost $29 billion so far, with $24 billion of that dedicated to replacing expended munitions and repairing or replacing damaged equipment. The figures, disclosed during a House Appropriations…
Sometime in July, roughly 7.5 million Americans will receive a letter or email from their federal student loan servicer that amounts to a countdown clock. The message: the administrative forbearance that has shielded borrowers enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan since mid-2024 is ending. Each borrower will have 90 days from the date of that…