Category: Cost of Living
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Iowa utilities stop disconnecting qualifying customers November 1, and telling the utility about a heating-aid application brings 30 days of protection
Iowa’s winter ban on utility disconnections runs from November 1 to April 1, and it protects qualifying customers rather than every account. A household that tells its electric or natural gas provider it is applying for federal heating aid receives a separate 30-day stay of disconnection while the application is processed, according to the Iowa…
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Iowa opens heating aid first to households with a resident 60 or older, a disabled resident or a housing crisis, and everyone else on November 1
Iowa began taking heating-aid applications on October 1 from households with a resident age 60 or older, a disabled resident or a housing crisis, and every other eligible household has to wait until November 1. The split puts a month between two groups of applicants for the same federal program, which runs through April 30,…
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Heating-aid applications opened October 1 in Iowa for older, disabled and housing-crisis households and in New Jersey and Rhode Island, and New Jersey takes them until June 30
New Jersey will take federal heating-aid applications through June 30, 2027, two months past Iowa’s April 30 cutoff, and the fiscal 2027 windows in both states opened October 1, along with Rhode Island’s. Iowa’s October opening covers only households with a resident age 60 or older, a disabled resident or a housing crisis, while every…
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HUD reset the Fair Market Rents that form the basis for housing-voucher payment standards on October 1 using census rent data collected from 2020 through 2024
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s FY 2027 Fair Market Rents took effect October 1, 2026, replacing the schedule that local housing agencies had been using to set voucher rent limits. The new figures rest on Census Bureau rent data collected between 2020 and 2024, which HUD then moved forward to account for the…
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Florida approved a renters-insurance cut at American Modern covering about 121,898 policies, effective October 11 at new business and renewal
About 121,898 renters-insurance “exposures” at American Modern Home Insurance Company are covered by a rate decrease that Florida regulators approved this month, and the new rates apply to new business and renewal starting October 11. The count comes from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, which announced the approval on October 2, and it is…
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New York returned 131 apartments to rent stabilization since May 2025
Apartments that the law treats as rent stabilized, but that landlords have been renting at market prices, are being pulled back under the rules by the New York Attorney General’s office. Its running tally since May 2025 stands at 131 units returned to rent stabilization, 27 evictions prevented and 30 landlords who certified compliance. The…
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San Diego’s adult monthly transit pass rose from $72 to $85 on October 1
The price of a 30-day adult regional transit pass in San Diego County went up on the first of the month, from $72 to $85. The change took effect October 1, 2026, and it is the first of two scheduled steps, with the same pass set to reach $95 a year later. The reduced-fare pass…
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Target cut prices on nearly 2,000 home and clothing items, taking a Threshold queen comforter from $89 to $69
Target has lowered the price on a long list of bedding, home and clothing basics, and the retailer put specific before-and-after numbers on a handful of them. The cuts were announced in Minneapolis on September 29, 2026, and cover nearly 2,000 items. The headline example is a Threshold queen comforter, which dropped from $89 to…
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UGI gas customers in Pennsylvania see a typical monthly bill rise from $113.76 to $117.69 on October 1
A typical residential gas bill from UGI Utilities in Pennsylvania moved from $113.76 to $117.69 a month on October 1, 2026, the first of two steps in a rate increase the state’s utility regulator approved that day. The monthly figures are the commission’s own, built on a stated level of household gas use. A second…
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Florida approved a 12.8 percent renters insurance rate cut at American Modern Home from October 11
Renters in Florida have a rare piece of insurance news to read this month: a price going down. The state insurance regulator has approved an average 12.8 percent rate decrease on renters policies written by one company, American Modern Home Insurance Company, and the lower rates begin on October 11. The approval was announced on…