Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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Home insurance rose 34 percent in Minnesota and 33 percent in Colorado last year
Homeowners in Minnesota and Colorado opened last year’s renewal notices to some of the steepest home insurance increases in the country, as insurers priced in years of hail, wind and wildfire losses. Minnesota’s average annual premium rose from $2,632 to $3,530 over 2025, and Colorado’s climbed from $3,032 to $3,996, according to an industry report…
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Heating bill help opens October 1 with no money appropriated behind it
Heating season does not wait for Washington to finish its budget, and this year the two calendars are drifting apart. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program’s operating year begins on October 1, the date written into the statute that runs it, and every state has already filed the paperwork needed to open its share…
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The 30-year mortgage jumped 19 basis points in a week to 6.95 percent
Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage rate survey shows the average 30-year fixed rate climbed to 6.95 percent this week, a jump of 19 basis points from the week before. For anyone shopping for a house, refinancing an existing loan, or watching an adjustable-rate mortgage reset, that single week of movement changes the math on what a…
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Grocery prices did not move at all in August, while restaurant meals rose 3.4 percent over the year
The government’s latest reading on consumer prices tells a split kitchen-table story for August 2026: the grocery aisle held still while the cost of eating out kept climbing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that its food-at-home index did not move at all last month, even as the price of restaurant and takeout meals rose…
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The federal rent ceiling falls in 466 housing markets on October 1 and rises in the rest
HUD’s annual Fair Market Rent notice, published September 1, sets the rent ceiling that federal housing programs use in thousands of markets nationwide, and the new figures take effect October 1, 2026. In 466 of those markets, the ceiling is going down rather than up, with the steepest declines concentrated in a handful of large…
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The payment Trump promised adults if Republicans hold Congress would cost about $1.3 trillion
President Donald Trump told a Republican convention crowd in Dallas that he would issue a $5,000 payment to every adult American citizen if the GOP keeps control of the House and Senate after November’s midterm elections. He gave no timeline, no funding mechanism and no agency to administer it. Analysts who ran the math on…
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The new car loan interest deduction only covers vehicles assembled in the United States, and the VIN goes on the form
A new tax break lets car buyers deduct up to $10,000 a year in loan interest, but the Treasury Department’s final rules make one thing unmistakable: the write-off is not open to every vehicle on a dealer’s lot. Anyone who financed a truck, SUV or sedan built outside the United States will find the deduction…
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A rejected direct deposit gives a taxpayer 30 days to fix it before the IRS mails a paper check
When a taxpayer’s refund can’t reach a bank account because the routing or account number is wrong, missing, or rejected outright, the IRS no longer simply defaults to mailing a check. It sends a notice called CP53E, starts a 30-day clock, and asks the taxpayer to fix the direct deposit online before that window closes.…
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Anyone who extended a 2025 return owes it October 15, and the free filing software is still open
Millions of taxpayers who asked the IRS for more time this spring are now closer to the real deadline than the extension ever suggested. October 15 is the date Form 4868 actually buys, and for households still sitting on an unfinished return, the IRS Free File program remains open to help finish it without paying…
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The IRS is replacing First Time Abate with automatic penalty relief, and the switch is final January 1
The Internal Revenue Service has begun retiring one of its oldest penalty-relief tools, First Time Abate, in favor of a new automatic process that does not require anyone to call or write in. The change affects any household or small business that occasionally files or pays a return late but otherwise has a clean compliance…