Main Street Dollars

—

by

in Housing & Rent

The government’s broadest measure of home values rose just 2.1 percent over the year ending in June, the smallest year-over-year gain the Federal Housing Finance Agency has logged for a second quarter in more than a decade. If you already own a home, that slowdown is quietly changing how much equity you can borrow against.…

Farm egg prices fell 82 percent this year while store prices fell 31

—

by

A carton of eggs that cost close to $6 during last year’s bird-flu shortage is cheaper again this fall, but not nearly as cheap as the price farmers are now getting. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service forecasts that farm-level egg prices will end 2026 down 82.1 percent from 2025, while the price…

Pork and poultry are forecast up under 1 percent this year while beef runs 9.8 percent higher

—

by

Stand at the meat case this week and three price tags tell three different stories. Ground beef is pushing toward $7 a pound. A few feet away, pork chops and chicken breast have barely budged all year. That gap isn’t random, and it isn’t a store-by-store fluke — it’s almost exactly what the U.S. Department…

Next year’s grocery forecast is 2.1 percent, with an error band running from minus 5.7 to plus 10.5 percent

—

by

USDA’s Economic Research Service puts next year’s grocery price increase at 2.1 percent. Read one paragraph further in the same August 25 update and that tidy number turns into a range: food-at-home prices could fall 5.7 percent in 2027, or they could climb 10.5 percent, and either outcome would still count as the forecast working…

A 50 percent duty on Canadian whisky, cheese and vehicles has been collected since August 22

—

by

If you buy a bottle of Canadian whisky, a wedge of Canadian cheese, or a car built in Ontario, the importer bringing it across the border has been paying an extra 50 cents on every dollar of that item’s value since August 22. That cost does not stay with the importer. It works its way…

The White House opened a 300,000-ton import window for lean beef trimmings, and the first tranche opened September 1

—

by

If you’ve watched ground beef climb past $6 a pound at the checkout counter, the federal government just made a bet that flooding the market with 300,000 more metric tons of imported lean beef trimmings will pull that number back down. The first chunk of that supply, 100,000 metric tons, became available to importers on…

One Indianapolis silver plan went from $316 a month to $546 in two years

—

by

in Insurance

In 2025, a 40-year-old earning $65,000 a year in Indianapolis paid $316 a month for an Anthem silver plan after a federal tax credit brought the price down. This year, with that credit gone, the same plan costs $477 a month. Insurers have now filed rates for 2027 that would push it to $546 —…

Insurers told regulators in writing that about four points of next year’s increase is the expired subsidy

—

by

in Insurance

Insurance companies do not usually explain their price increases in public. This year they have, in writing, to state regulators — and in filing after filing for 2027, they point at the same cause for roughly four percentage points of the increase: the enhanced premium tax credits that expired at the end of 2025. That…

Two states have published final 2027 health insurance decisions, at 21.6 and 17.2 percent

—

by