Category: Cost of Living
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The VA is telling home loan borrowers who lost a job that foreclosure is not automatic
A veteran who loses a job and falls behind on a VA-backed mortgage does not automatically lose the house — that is the message the Department of Veterans Affairs is putting directly in front of borrowers this month. VA says a missed payment starts a process a homeowner can still work through, not an ending.…
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HealthCare.gov still lists January 15 as the last day to enroll, whatever the December 15 warnings say
Marcus Webb’s insurance broker in Toledo has fielded the same panicked phone call four times this week: a client who saw a headline saying the government shrank Open Enrollment down to December 15 this year, and wanted to lock in a plan before it was “too late.” It isn’t too late. HealthCare.gov’s own site, checked…
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Insurers in all 50 states are asking for a median 15 percent increase on marketplace plans next year
If you buy your own health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, the letter that lands in your mailbox this fall is likely to carry a bigger number than last year’s. Insurers covering every state and Washington, D.C. have filed paperwork asking regulators to approve a median premium increase of 15 percent for 2027.…
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Cigna is leaving the individual insurance marketplace in 11 states on January 1, and 369,000 people must repick
Cigna sold you an individual health plan this year in one of 11 states. Come January 1, 2027, that plan won’t exist. Roughly 369,000 people are in this position right now, and most of them don’t know it yet, because the decision was made back in April during a routine earnings call, not a headline…
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A budget request would end LIHEAP, the $4 billion program that helps pay heating bills, weeks before winter
The White House’s budget blueprint for the fiscal year that begins October 1 calls for eliminating the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program entirely, zeroing out the roughly $4 billion a year the federal government sends to states to help households cover heating and cooling bills. The request lands just as state energy offices wrap…
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HUD published the rent ceiling every housing voucher in the country follows, and the new numbers start October 1
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has finalized the rent figures that will govern the Housing Choice Voucher program for the next year, and they take effect in less than a month. Those figures, called Fair Market Rents, set the ceiling on what a housing agency will subsidize toward a voucher holder’s rent,…
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Homeownership under 35 fell to 35.2 percent, the only age group where the drop was big enough to count
The share of Americans under 35 who own their home fell to 35.2 percent in the second quarter of 2026, down a full percentage point from 36.4 percent a year earlier. It was the only age bracket where the U.S. Census Bureau’s own statisticians flagged the year-over-year change as large enough to be meaningful rather…
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The median asking rent hit $1,531 as the share of empty rentals reached its highest second quarter since 2020
The median asking rent for an empty apartment or rental home hit $1,531 in the second quarter of 2026, according to new Census Bureau data, and the share of rental units sitting vacant climbed to its highest second-quarter level since 2020. For the country’s renter households, that combination is unusual: asking rents are still climbing,…
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Eating out is rising 3.6 percent this year while groceries rise 2.5 percent
Restaurant meals are set to get costlier at a faster pace than groceries this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest economic forecast. The agency’s Economic Research Service projects food-away-from-home prices rising 3.6 percent in 2026, while grocery store prices climb a slower 2.5 percent. That’s a wider split than the two categories…
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Candy and sweets are running 7.1 percent higher, the grocery store’s second-fastest riser
Chocolate bars, bagged candy, and gum are getting measurably more expensive this year, and the increase shows no sign of leveling off before Halloween. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest grocery price forecast puts sugar and sweets on track for one of the steepest increases of any food category tracked in 2026, trailing only beef…