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
Anyone on SNAP or Medicaid can cut a phone bill $9.25 a month through Lifeline
A federal telephone and internet subsidy that has run for decades still knocks up to $9.25 a month off the bill for households already enrolled...
Five states — Mississippi, Kansas, Oklahoma, Alabama and West Virginia — carry the lowest overall cost of living
Where a retirement dollar stretches furthest is not a matter of opinion in the latest national data. In the first quarter of 2026, Oklahoma, Alabama,...
Most states waive property taxes entirely for veterans rated 100% disabled
For a veteran carrying a 100 percent service-connected disability rating, the single largest recurring housing cost can drop to zero. A clear majority of states...
Homeowners 65 and older can cut hundreds off property taxes with a state circuit-breaker rebate
Many older homeowners never realize their state will send back part of a property-tax bill that swallows too big a share of their income. The...
Six states now freeze seniors’ property taxes, and New Jersey’s program pays up to $6,500
A growing number of states are trying to keep longtime homeowners from being taxed out of the houses they already own, and the most generous...
Minimum wage will rise in more than 20 states in 2027, led by California at $17.40 while the federal floor stays $7.25
The gap between the highest and lowest minimum wage in America is about to widen again. On January 1, 2027, more than 20 states will...
A federal program helps low-income households cover part of a summer cooling bill
A summer electric bill can climb by $50 or more once a window unit or central air runs through a July heat wave, and for...
Utility rate hikes now reach 116 million electric customers across 49 states, adding $40 or more a month in some
An advocacy-run tracker of utility filings now counts more than 116 million electric customers facing higher or proposed-higher power bills, spread across 49 states and...
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...