Cost of Living
Grocery prices, gas prices, utility costs, inflation impacts on everyday expenses, consumer sentiment, and the real-world financial pressures facing households.
Latest in Cost of Living
Store-brand grocery sales hit a record as families trade down to fight food inflation
Private-label grocery sales climbed to a record $282.8 billion in 2025, as households increasingly swapped name-brand staples for store-brand versions to soften years of elevated...
Electricity bills are set to rise across 13 states after a regional power auction cleared at its price cap
Electricity bills are working their way higher across a swath of the eastern United States after the grid operator PJM Interconnection’s latest capacity auction cleared...
Kroger is slashing prices across thousands of items to chase Walmart and Costco
Kroger has cut prices by about 2% across its stores as new CEO Greg Foran pushes what the company is calling its biggest round of...
Record August gas prices are quietly swallowing much of this year’s Social Security raise for retirees who drive
The national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was running about $4.09 in the final week of August, and the Energy Information Administration’s...
The typical American driver now pays about $194 a month for car insurance
The typical American driver now pays $1,162 for a six-month car insurance policy, or $194 a month, a national premium that has risen 18% in...
Homeowners insurance is projected to average $3,057 this year
The average annual homeowners insurance premium is projected to climb another 4 percent this year, reaching $3,057 by the end of 2026, according to a...
Obamacare insurers are proposing double-digit premium increases again for 2027
ACA Marketplace insurers filed preliminary 2027 rate requests calling for a median premium increase of 15 percent, based on filings covering 276 companies across every...
Assisted living has climbed to a median $6,200 a month, or $74,400 a year
The median cost of an assisted living community climbed 5% over the past year to $6,200 a month, or $74,400 annually, according to the 2025...
Nursing home care runs about $315 a day, nearly $115,000 a year
A semi-private nursing home room carried a median price of $315 a day in 2025, or $114,975 for a full year, according to the 2025...
A federal outlook has all food prices rising about 3% this year, with beef and coffee leading and eggs the main thing pulling it down
The federal government’s latest read on grocery prices lands in familiar territory: the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that all food prices will rise about...
Coffee is up as much as 25% and ground beef sits near $6.83 a pound as tariffs and shortages hit the grocery aisle
Grocery receipts told two very different stories in the summer of 2026. Ground beef averaged roughly $6.83 a pound, roasted coffee carried a double-digit annual...
Eggs are forecast to fall about 31% in 2026 even as beef and milk keep climbing
One corner of the grocery store is finally moving in the shopper’s favor, and it is the same aisle that inflicted the worst sticker shock...
The average U.S. household will pay roughly $920 more this year because of Trump’s tariffs, one analysis estimates
A year of higher import taxes is quietly landing on kitchen tables, and one estimate puts the average tab at roughly $920 per household for...
A federal Lifeline benefit can trim the monthly phone or internet bill for low-income households
A telephone and internet bill is one of the few household costs that rarely bends, arriving at the same figure month after month regardless of...
Macy’s plans to close about 150 stores by year’s end
Macy’s is closing in on the finish line of a plan to shut roughly 150 of its namesake department stores, a retrenchment that began in...
Trump’s tariffs shrank the trade deficit but pushed everyday prices higher, a new analysis finds
A fresh analysis of the tariff record credits the import duties with a genuine achievement, a meaningfully smaller U.S. trade deficit, while documenting the price...
A federal program can help low-income households cover part of a winter heating bill
A federal program pays part of the heating and cooling bills for millions of low-income households, and can cover an emergency benefit when a shutoff...
Gas near $4.10 a gallon and mortgages close to 7% are squeezing fixed incomes this summer
The national average price of gasoline sat near $4.10 a gallon in late August 2026, while the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage climbed...
Ground beef is up nearly 19% and tomatoes about 50% as tariffs and shortages hit the grocery aisle
Two staples of the grocery cart are climbing far faster than the overall inflation rate. Recent federal data show ground beef up about 18.9 percent...
Coffee is up about 20% and ground beef nearly 19% as tariffs and shortages hit groceries
Two fixtures of the American kitchen are leading the newest run-up in grocery prices, and both hit the kind of everyday shopping that fills a...