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
ACA marketplace premiums rose about 26% for 2026, the steepest increase in eight years
The amount insurers charge for coverage on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces is rising about 26% on average for 2026, the largest jump since 2018...
ACA tax credits lapsed, and a 60-year-old can pay more than $10,000 extra for marketplace coverage this year
The enhanced premium tax credits that held down Affordable Care Act premiums for five years lapsed at the end of 2025, and the first bills...
Minimum wage rose in 19 states this year, with a handful more raising it later
Minimum wage increased in 19 states at the start of 2026, lifting the pay floor for millions of workers on the first paycheck of the...
A shared nursing-home room now runs $72,000 to $127,750 a year, and Medicaid helps only after savings fall below $2,000
A shared room in a nursing home now costs far more than most retirees’ entire annual income, and the public program that finally pays for...
A home health aide now runs a median $35 an hour, so full-time in-home care can top a nursing home’s cost
The national median price of a home health aide reached $35 an hour in 2025, and that single figure quietly reshapes one of the biggest...
Assisted living averages about $6,200 a month, but Medicaid pays only for care, not room and board
Assisted living now runs about $6,200 a month on average nationwide, or roughly $74,400 a year, a figure that catches many families flat-footed when a...
Illinois raised its senior property-tax-freeze income limit to $75,000 for 2026
Illinois has lifted the income ceiling for its senior property-tax freeze to $75,000 for the 2026 tax year, up from $65,000, opening one of the...
Homeowners 65 and older can cut property taxes with a state circuit-breaker rebate
Older homeowners in about 30 states can claw back part of their property tax bill through a relief program many have never heard of, often...
ACA insurers propose another 15% premium increase for 2027, a second double-digit jump
Health insurers selling Affordable Care Act marketplace plans are asking regulators to raise premiums by a median of about 15 percent for 2027, a second...
New Jersey seniors can stack three programs for thousands in property-tax relief
New Jersey has some of the highest property taxes in the country, but its seniors now have an unusually powerful counterweight: three separate relief programs...
Grocery prices actually slipped in July, with eggs, meat and lettuce leading the drop
For the first time in months, the grocery aisle offered a measure of relief instead of another increase. The index that tracks food bought to...
Diesel just set a mid-August record, feeding into grocery and delivery bills
Diesel fuel rarely draws the attention that gasoline does, yet it has quietly climbed to its highest mid-August level on record, a milestone with consequences...
Artificial intelligence is behind more than half of 2026’s layoffs, already 205,000 jobs
Reports tracking corporate layoff announcements now attribute job cuts affecting roughly 205,000 American workers in 2026 at least partly to artificial intelligence, with automation named...
Gas has hit $4.03 a gallon, the highest ever recorded this late in the year and up 30% from a year ago
The national average price of regular gasoline reached $4.03 a gallon on August 13, 2026, the highest level ever recorded this deep into a calendar...
Home insurance is climbing a fifth straight year toward about $3,057
Home insurance is on track for a fifth consecutive year of increases, with the average annual premium projected to reach about $3,057. For homeowners on...
The average new-car payment has hit a record $777 a month
The average monthly payment on a new car has climbed to a record $777, a figure that turns a routine purchase into a major line...
Inflation cooled to 3.4% in July, yet electricity still costs 4.2% more than a year ago
Consumer prices rose 3.4% over the year through July, a slight cooling from the prior month and a sign that the worst of the recent...
Trump’s tariffs are projected to cost the average household about $700 this year
Household budgets are absorbing a fresh hit from trade policy, and a new tally attaches a dollar figure to it. The Tax Foundation projects that...
LIHEAP helps low-income seniors pay part of their summer cooling bill
As summer electricity bills climb with each heat wave, a federal assistance program that most people associate only with winter heating quietly helps low-income seniors...
Grocery prices are up about 25% since 2019, and electricity has climbed 4% in just the past year
The official inflation rate has cooled, yet the checkout receipt tells a harsher story. Consumer prices rose 3.5% over the year ended June 2026, a...