Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
U.S. home sales fell sharply in early 2026 as elevated mortgage rates and steep prices pushed buyers to the sidelines. Existing-home sales dropped 8.4% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.91 million units, hitting the lowest level in more than two years. New-home sales also edged lower at the end of 2025,…
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes dropped sharply in January, recording the largest monthly decline in nearly four years even as mortgage rates edged lower. The data, released by the National Association of Realtors, signals that cheaper borrowing costs alone have not been enough to thaw a housing market that has been sluggish since 2022….
Lakeland, Florida, a mid-sized city positioned along the Interstate 4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando, has claimed the top spot on a national ranking of America’s fastest-growing boomtowns. The city’s population surged 34.39% between 2014 and 2024, and its 2025 move in-to-out ratio of 1.33 means roughly four people arrive for every three who leave….
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has ignited a fierce backlash from New York City’s real estate industry by proposing a 9.5% property tax rate increase as part of his Fiscal Year 2027 preliminary budget, a move he frames as a fallback if Albany refuses to pass a state wealth tax on millionaires. The proposal would push the…
Buying a home in the United States has become so expensive that most Americans now view it as a bad financial move, and federal data shows the gap between housing costs and wages is widening at an alarming rate. Median home prices have climbed 54% over the past five years while wages rose just 29%,…
The U.S. Census Bureau’s latest county-level property tax data exposes a sharp geographic divide in what American homeowners actually pay each year, with bills in some coastal and suburban counties running several times higher than those in rural areas. The data, drawn from the American Community Survey’s most recent five-year estimates, allows researchers and homeowners…
Homeowners routinely pour money into kitchen countertops and bathroom tile, yet a growing body of peer-reviewed research and industry data points to a different set of upgrades that deliver outsized returns. From strategic tree planting backed by federal forestry studies to lead paint remediation that yields roughly $2.60 in benefits for every dollar spent, the…
Homeowners paying condo and HOA fees now number 21.6 million across the United States, roughly one in four owner-occupied households, and the bills they face are climbing fast enough to reshape where people choose to live. With a national median monthly fee of $135 and approximately 3 million households paying more than $500 per month,…
The White House is moving to block investors who already own large portfolios of single-family homes from purchasing additional properties, according to a memo that outlines the most detailed version yet of President Donald Trump’s housing affordability push. The proposal would set a threshold at 100 homes, meaning any firm that owns more than that…
Used electric vehicles priced under $25,000 are stacking up on dealer lots across the United States, creating a buyer’s market that barely existed two years ago. New EV sales fell sharply in late 2025, and the ripple effect has pushed a growing share of secondhand models into a price range that qualifies for a federal…