Markus Andrews

Roughly 1 in 5 (19%) of homeowners found the cost of home improvement projects to be the most surprising element in the first six months of homeownership, according to a new report by home services site Angi.
Annual “hidden costs” of homeownership average around $18,000 nationwide, according to a separate report by Bankrate.com.
Here are ways buyers can prepare and potentially reduce unexpected costs.

Senior couple repairing kitchen cabinet at home
Momo Productions | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Alex Marrero and his wife bought their first home this spring in Coral Springs, Florida — and the couple has already spent nearly $17,000 on home maintenance, repairs and installations. 
While they knew they needed to do improvements from “the minute they bought the house,” Marrero said, some were more expensive than anticipated.

For example, he estimated four hurricane impact-resistant windows and a garage door would cost between $4,000 to $5,000. But after multiple quotes from contractors, he ended up paying $9,800.
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Since their mid-April home purchase, the couple also hired contractors to refinish their scratched-up wood floors for a total $2,200; installed a pool safety fence for $1,673; removed popcorn finishing from the garage ceiling for $800; had someone prime and paint ceiling texture for $650; and replaced cracked roof tiles for $1,670.
“We’re still kind of anticipating more expenses,” said Marrero, 33. “I know the pool pump is on its last leg. So, we’re bracing.”

‘Understanding that process is enlightening’

Marrero’s experience isn’t unique.

Experts say the “hidden costs” of owning a home, especially repairs and maintenance, can come as a shock for homeowners.
Roughly 1 in 5 (19%) of homeowners found the cost of home improvement projects to be the most surprising element in the first six months of homeownership, according to a new report by Angi, an online marketplace that connects homeowners with professional contractors for home maintenance or renovations. In late May, the site polled a total of 1,000 Americans who bought a home in the past five years. 
“Living in an apartment, they’re likely not hiring home improvement contractors, so I think there’s kind of the realization of just, how much does it cost to hire a plumber,” said Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angi.
“Understanding that process is enlightening for them,” she said.

Annual “hidden costs” of homeownership average around $18,000 nationwide, according to a separate report by Bankrate.com. Its report estimated home maintenance at 2% a year of the value of a home.
Based on that calculation, Bankrate estimated, annual maintenance costs in some of the states with the highest home prices — like California, Hawaii and Massachusetts — can go over $26,000 annually.
Meanwhile, in Kentucky, which Bankrate pointed to as the least expensive state, annual maintenance might be around $5,000.
First-time homeowners are less likely to be aware of those costs than those who have previously owned a home, Angi found, and more likely to say they spent more than expected on home maintenance, improvements and emergencies.
“Once you’ve been a homeowner for a while, you realize everything that can go wrong,” Jeff Ostrowski, an analyst at Bankrate.com, recently told CNBC. 
Here are things you should consider when shopping for a home and as a new homeowner, to help limit maintenance surprises:

1. Have a home inspector lined up

In April, around 19% of buyers waived the home inspection, down from 22% one month prior and 21% a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Sometimes home inspections are skipped because they have to be done in a quick time frame and “you start to make choices that may not be ideal” out of the fear you’ll lose the home, Hicks said.

But hiring a home inspector is essential, said Dan Bawden, a residential construction expert and president of Legal Eagle Contractors Co. in Bellaire, Texas.
“That’s probably the most important thing you can do,” he said.
Typically, home inspectors need one week’s notice on average, he said, so keep that in mind as you start looking at homes.
Ask real estate agents for referrals on licensed home inspectors in your area who will conduct a thorough service, Bawden said.
“Instead of spending $450, you might spend $600 for somebody that’s better, but that’s money well spent,” he said. “You want them to find as many things as possible.”

2. Look for ‘deal breakers’ in the home inspection

JGI/Tom Grill | Tetra images | Getty Images

The home inspection is “an important element” in the homebuying process because you can discover elements in a house that could be a “deal breaker,” said Hicks.
Be present for the inspection, if you can.
“If you’re there with them, they will tell you what things are urgent or severe,” Bawden said.
For instance, if the house has many cracks along the doorway or windows, or feel a downward slope as you walk across a floor, it may have foundational issues, he said.
“You do not want to buy a house with foundation problems. They will get worse over time and they are expensive to fix,” Bawden said.
Other notable deal breakers include termite damage and water damage, he said.
An inspection can also help you understand the age of important elements, like the roof. Take advantage of the inspection process to ask questions about these elements, and then assess if you have the budget to cover those costs, or if it’s something worth asking the seller about, Hicks explained.
Having a complete list of problem areas noted in an inspection can help you prioritize repairs and potentially negotiate the purchase price of the home, said Bawden.

3. Keep your ‘critical eye’ as a homeowner

Once you become a homeowner, it will be important to keep up with routine maintenance in your house. “Don’t skip out on having that air conditioner or furnace tuned up,” said Hicks. “It’s like changing the oil on your car.”
To avoid surprises, try to regularly inspect your home and look for spots or corners that may need to be fixed. While homeowners are “the most critical” of a house when they’re buying, they often don’t keep the “critical eye” after moving in, said Hicks.

Have mechanical system checkups at least once a year, said Bowden, as well as plumbing and electrical system checkups.
“You need to be vigilant,” he said.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct a figure and a quote from Angie Hicks.

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As Congress wrestles with a looming decision over trillions in expiring tax breaks, some Democratic lawmakers and experts are calling for higher taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans.
Lawmakers and experts debated several Democratic proposals.
More than 60% of taxpayers will face higher taxes if all the individual provisions from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire after 2025.

Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, during a hearing in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. 
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

As Congress wrestles with a looming decision over trillions in expiring tax breaks, lawmakers and experts in a Senate Budget Committee hearing debated several Democratic proposals for higher taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans.
Proponents said the plans aim to address income inequality and the federal budget deficit.

Some of the debate included scrutiny of the corporate tax rate, stock buybacks, capital gains tax rates and levies on profits for private equity and hedge fund managers, known as carried interest. They also discussed taxes on unrealized gains, or profits on unsold assets, among other proposals.
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Higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy would “create a more equitable tax system which generates substantially more revenue and promotes growth,” Joseph Stiglitz, professor of economics at Columbia University, said in prepared testimony.
However, many of these proposals, such as reforms to carried interest, have failed to gain broad support even among Democrats, said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
While carried interest reform was originally included in the Inflation Reduction Act, those changes were removed before the bill passed in the Senate.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said most of the proposed tax increases discussed during the hearing would have “unintended consequences” for the economy.

The debate over expiring tax breaks

President Joe Biden has also called for higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, saying these taxes would help pay for an extension of expiring tax breaks for filers who make less than $400,000.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or TCJA, which was enacted by former President Donald Trump, included lower federal income brackets, raised the standard deduction and doubled an estate and gift tax exemption, among other provisions.

Without action from Congress, more than 60% of filers will pay higher taxes after 2025 once TCJA provisions expire, according to the Tax Foundation.
However, a full extension of expiring provisions will be costly and could add an estimated $4.6 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported in May.
While Trump hasn’t disclosed many tax policy proposals during his presidential campaign, he has expressed interest in fully extending expiring TCJA provisions.
Of course, the future of the legislation ultimately hinges on which party controls Congress and the White House. More

The Federal Reserve held rates steady at the end of its two-day meeting Wednesday, once again pushing back the start of rate cuts and any relief from sky-high borrowing costs.
Higher prices and interest rates have put many households under pressure.

Chris Wattie | Reuters

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it will leave interest rates unchanged. Fresh inflation data issued earlier in the day showed that consumer prices are gradually moderating though remain above the central bank’s target.
The Fed’s benchmark fed funds rate has now stood within the range of 5.25% to 5.50% since last July.

The central bank projected it would cut interest rates once in 2024, down from an estimate of three in March.
For consumers already strained by the high cost of living, there is an added toll from persistently high borrowing costs.
“It’s not enough that the rate of inflation has come down,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com. “Prices haven’t, and that is what is really stressing household balances.”
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Inflation has been a persistent problem since the Covid-19 pandemic when price increases soared to their highest levels since the early 1980s. The Fed responded with a series of interest rate hikes that took its benchmark rate to the highest level in decades.

The federal funds rate, which is set by the U.S. central bank, is the rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another overnight. Although that’s not the rate consumers pay, the Fed’s moves still affect the borrowing and savings rates they see every day.
The spike in interest rates caused most consumer borrowing costs to skyrocket, and now, more Americans are falling behind on their payments.
From credit cards and mortgage rates to auto loans and student debt, here’s a look at where those monthly interest expenses stand.

Credit cards

Since most credit cards have a variable rate, there’s a direct connection to the Fed’s benchmark. In the wake of the rate hike cycle, the average credit card rate rose from 16.34% in March 2022 to nearly 21% today — nearing an all-time high.
“Consumers need to understand that the cavalry isn’t coming anytime soon, so the best thing you can do is take things into your own hands when it comes to lowering credit card interest rates,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
Try calling your card issuer to ask for a lower rate, consolidating and paying off high-interest credit cards with a lower-interest personal loan or switching to an interest-free balance transfer credit card, Schulz advised.

Mortgage rates

Although 15- and 30-year mortgage rates are fixed and tied to Treasury yields and the economy, anyone shopping for a new home has lost considerable purchasing power, partly because of inflation and the Fed’s policy moves.
The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is just above 7%, up from 4.4% when the Fed started raising rates in March 2022 and 3.27% at the end of 2021, according to Bankrate.
“Going forward, mortgage rates will likely continue to fluctuate and it’s impossible to say for certain where they’ll end up,” noted Jacob Channel, senior economist at LendingTree. “That said, there’s a good chance that we’re going to need to get used to rates above 7% again, at least until we start getting better economic news.”

Auto loans

Even though auto loans are fixed, payments are getting bigger because car prices have been rising along with the interest rates on new loans, resulting in less affordable monthly payments. 
The average rate on a five-year new car loan is now more than 7%, up from 4% in March 2022, and that’s not likely to change, according to Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights.
“Until we hit summer selldown months in the latter half of the third quarter, we should expect rates to remain relatively static during the foreseeable future,” Drury said.
However, competition between lenders and more incentives in the market lately have started to take some of the edge off the cost of buying a car, he added.

Student loans

Federal student loan rates are also fixed, so most borrowers aren’t immediately affected by the Fed’s moves. But undergraduate students who took out direct federal student loans for the 2023-24 academic year are paying 5.50%, up from 4.99% in 2022-23 — and the interest rate on federal direct undergraduate loans for the 2024-2025 academic year will be 6.53%, the highest rate in at least a decade.
Private student loans tend to have a variable rate tied to the prime, Treasury bill or another rate index, which means those borrowers are already paying more in interest. How much more, however, varies with the benchmark.

Savings rates

While the central bank has no direct influence on deposit rates, the yields tend to be correlated to changes in the target federal funds rate.
As a result, top-yielding online savings account rates have made significant moves and are now paying more than 5% — above the rate of inflation, which is a rare win for anyone building up a cash cushion, according to Bankrate’s McBride.
“Savers are sitting back and enjoying the best environment they’ve seen in more than 15 years,” McBride said.
Currently, top-yielding one-year certificates of deposit pay over 5.3%, as good as a high-yield savings account.
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Inflation pulled back in May 2024. The consumer price index declined to a 3.3% annual rate, down from 3.4% in April.
Prices have eased for consumer staples such as gasoline and groceries. Housing inflation has been stubbornly high, though it’s falling slowly.
The CPI data is likely welcome news for Federal Reserve officials, who may see it as evidence they can soon cut interest rates.

Customers purchase gas at a station in Chicago, Illinois, June 11, 2024.
Scott Olson | Getty Images

Inflation fell slightly in May, as positive trends such as lower gasoline prices were counteracted by others including stubbornly high costs for housing.
Trends under the surface suggest the fight against inflation continues to bear fruit, albeit slowly, economists said.

The consumer price index, a key inflation gauge, rose 3.3% in May from a year ago, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday. That’s down from 3.4% in April.
“I think this report reinforces the disinflationary narrative, that inflation is almost back in the bottle,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

‘Encouraging’ news for interest rates

The CPI gauges how fast prices are changing across the U.S. economy. It measures everything from fruits and vegetables to haircuts, concert tickets and household appliances.
The April inflation reading is down significantly from its 9.1% pandemic-era peak in 2022, which was the highest level since 1981. However, it remains above policymakers’ long-term target, around 2%.

The Federal Reserve uses inflation data to guide its interest rate policy. Economists expect the central bank to leave borrowing costs unchanged — at a roughly two-decade high — at the conclusion of its latest policy meeting later Wednesday.

However, the newest batch of inflation data supports the notion of an interest-rate cut in coming months, assuming the trajectory doesn’t change, economists said.
“We still need several more months of this, but the fundamentals are encouraging,” Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a note Wednesday.

Food and gasoline inflation fell

While annual data on inflation trends is helpful, economists generally recommend looking at monthly numbers as a better guide of short-term movements and inflation trends.
The monthly reading was unchanged, at 0% in May, down from 0.3% in April and 0.4% in March. To get back to target, economists say the monthly reading should consistently be in the range of about 0.2%.
That downward move was “largely driven” by lower gasoline prices, said Joe Seydl, senior markets economist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank.

U.S. gasoline prices fell 3.6% in the month from April to May, after having increased in each of the prior three months, according to CPI data. Prices are up about 2% over the past year.
Consumers paid an average pump price of roughly $3.58 a gallon at the end of May, according to weekly data published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Gas prices have continued to decline since then: Average prices were $3.43 a gallon as of June 10.

There has also been a broad pullback in grocery prices.
Monthly “food at home” inflation has been at 0% or even negative for the past four months, according to CPI data.
“Food inflation has fallen back really sharply,” said Olivia Cross, a North America economist at Capital Economics.
That’s largely due to falling prices for agricultural commodities, in addition to others such as easing pressures in the labor market, she said.

Housing inflation is falling slowly

Single family homes in a residential neighborhood in San Marcos, Texas.
Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Economists also generally like to consider an inflation measure that strips out energy and food prices, which can be volatile, to determine prevailing inflation trends.
That reading, known as “core” CPI, fell to a monthly 0.2% reading in May, down from 0.3% in April, and 3.4% on an annual basis, down from 3.6%.
Some components of core CPI remain trouble spots. Chief among them is housing, which has remained stubbornly elevated, economists said.
Shelter inflation was 5.4% annually in May, down marginally from 5.5% in April.
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Shelter inflation has an outsized impact on CPI numbers because it’s by far consumers’ largest expenditure.
“It’s falling more slowly than people were hoping for,” said Michael Pugliese, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Economics. “It moves at a glacial pace both up and down.”

Prices for household necessities ‘going nowhere fast’

That said, housing inflation is falling. It’s down from a peak over 8% in March 2023.
Economists expect it to continue to decline given prevailing real estate trends, but say it will likely take a while for that cycle to play out.
For example, market rents for new leases are flat and “haven’t gone anywhere for two years,” Zandi said.
“Basic [household] necessities — food, gas, rent — they’re all going nowhere fast, and that’s really very encouraging,” Zandi added.

Aside from housing, other categories with “notable increases” over the last year include motor vehicle insurance, up 20.3%; medical care, up 3.1%: recreation, up 1.3%; and personal care, up 2.9%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
Meanwhile, some categories have seen prices pull back. Broadly, physical goods prices excluding food and energy commodities declined by 1.7% in the past year, including a 9.3% reduction for used cars and trucks; airline fares are also down, by 5.9%.

Services inflation has been ‘slower moving’

Inflation for physical goods spiked as the U.S. economy reopened in 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains, while Americans spent more on their homes and less on services such as dining out and entertainment.
Now, “the goods side of the inflation story is pretty much back to normal,” Pugliese said. “It’s really the services side that’s been much slower moving.”
There are many reasons for that, economists said.

I think this report reinforces the disinflationary narrative, that inflation is almost back in the bottle.

Mark Zandi
chief economist at Moody’s Analytics

For example, a surge in new and used car prices a few years ago is likely now fueling high inflation for motor vehicle insurance and repair, since it generally costs more to insure and repair pricier cars, economists said.
The services sector is also generally more sensitive to inflationary pressures in the labor market such as strong wage growth.
Record-high demand for workers as the pandemic-era economy reopened pushed wage growth to its highest level in decades. The labor market has since cooled and wage growth has declined, though it remains above its pre-pandemic level.
Average hourly earnings for private-sector workers grew at a 4.1% annual pace in May, down from a peak near 6% in March 2022.
“From a wage inflation perspective, we’re still too high,” J.P. Morgan’s Seydl said.
However, data suggests wages will continue to cool from here, he added. More

Like hundreds of thousands of Americans do so yearly, Mishima Hughson filed for bankruptcy last December.
Along the way, she joined a much smaller group: those who have managed to get their federal student debt canceled in court.
The U.S. Department of Education found that she was no longer responsible for her $158,182 debt. “I thought it was a joke,” Hughson, 58, said.

U.S. President Joe Biden gestures after speaking about student loan debt relief at Madison Area Technical College in Madison, Wisconsin, April 8, 2024.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

Mishima Hughson filed for bankruptcy in December, joining the ranks of hundreds of thousands of Americans who undergo the process each year.
Along the way, the Roanoke, Virginia, resident also joined a much smaller group: those who have managed to get their federal student loans erased in court. The U.S. Department of Education found that Hughson was no longer responsible for her $158,182 debt.

“I thought it was a joke,” Hughson, 58, said. “I was shocked.”
For decades, borrowers have found it next to impossible to walk away from their federal student debt in bankruptcy. Amid concerns that young people would try to ditch their obligations, policymakers made the bar for the discharge of student debt in court particularly high.
Some people needed to prove a “certainty of hopelessness,” and government lawyers battled most of the requests. Between 2011 and 2019, more than 99.8% of borrowers who filed for bankruptcy did not get their student loans discharged, U.S. lawmakers recently pointed out.
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That’s now changing.

In fall 2022, the Department of Education and the Department of Justice jointly released updated bankruptcy guidelines to make the process for student loan borrowers less arduous. The Biden administration’s updated policy now treats student loans like other types of debt in bankruptcy court, experts say.
“While the government used to fight discharge aggressively in almost every case, there is now a policy to agree when the borrower can show financial need and a history of good faith efforts to pay the loans,” said Latife Neu, a bankruptcy lawyer in Seattle.
“I’ve helped several people take advantage of the expanded ability,” Neu said.

Malissa Giles, a bankruptcy attorney in Virginia who represented Hughson, said she has also helped several other borrowers get their student debt cleared under the Biden administration’s new policy. Collectively, those clients have received more than $1.25 million in relief.
“We have discharged student loans as low as $6,500 for debtors with super minimal income and as high as $203,983,” Giles said.
Consumer advocates say that strong bankruptcy protections are essential to a fair lending system.
“If a lender knows that they are likely to lose a loan through bankruptcy discharge, they are more likely to adopt borrower-friendly policies, such as compromising with borrowers who face severe financial challenges,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

‘I was not realistic about how little teachers made’

After graduating college in the 1990s with around $35,500 in student debt, Hughson went on to become a public school teacher in Virginia. Her salary began at around $30,000 and never rose above $50,000 in her over 10-year teaching career.
“You have a false expectancy that when you graduate you’ll land this amazing job, and you’ll be able to pay that debt back,” Hughson said. “But I was not realistic about how little teachers made.”
Hughson was also raising two children at the time, and she couldn’t afford her monthly student loan bill.
“I put in for as many deferments as I could,” she said.
She ran out of ways to postpone her payments and eventually fell behind. Then the Department of Education began garnishing her wages. The government has extraordinary collection powers on federal debts and, in addition to borrowers’ paychecks, it can also seize tax refunds and Social Security retirement benefits.
“Aggressive collection methods for recovering defaulted student loans, such as wage garnishment, reduce the amount of money a borrower has to pay for basic necessities, such as housing, food and medical care,” Kantrowitz said. “They may be forced to rely on credit cards and other forms of debt to pay for basic living expenses.”

Indeed, Hughson’s financial situation only worsened after the garnishment. She used her credit cards to pay her bills and eventually reached an unpaid balance of more than $30,000 across her cards.
She left teaching in her 40s, hoping that she could earn more doing something else. She worked different jobs, including one helping adults with learning disabilities.
Although her earnings improved somewhat, her debt swallowed up most of what she made. Over the decades, her student loan balance swelled to over $150,000.
After she got paid and directed cash to her mushrooming credit card balances, she was left with just around $100 for that pay period.
“I could see that it was a never-ending cycle,” she said.
Last year, she decided to finally file for bankruptcy.
“I was in a hole I couldn’t dig myself out of,” Hughson said. “And now I’m free.”

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President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both want to extend expiring tax breaks for most Americans.
That could be difficult amid the federal budget deficit, policy experts say.
Fully extending Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions could add an estimated $4.6 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump 2024.
Brendan Smialowski | Jon Cherry | Getty Images

Presumptive nominees President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have both pledged to extend expiring tax breaks for most Americans — but questions remain on how to pay for it.
Trillions in tax breaks enacted by Trump via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or TCJA, will expire after 2025 without action from Congress. This would increase taxes for more than 60% of filers, according to the Tax Foundation.

Expiring individual provisions include lower federal income brackets, higher standard deductions, a more generous child tax credit and more.
But the federal budget deficit will be a “huge sticking point” as the 2025 tax cliff approaches, said Erica York, senior economist and research manager with the Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy.
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Fully extending TCJA provisions could add an estimated $4.6 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported in May.
The cost of extending major parts of the TCJA has grown about 50% since initial estimates in 2018, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

In 2018, the Congressional Budget Office estimated economic growth from the TCJA would cover about 20% of the cost of tax cuts. But the effects were smaller, studies have shown.
“There’s no serious economist who thinks that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act remotely came close to paying for itself,” said Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. “And nobody thinks that extending it or making it permanent is going to pay for itself.”

There’s no serious economist who thinks that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act remotely came close to paying for itself.

Howard Gleckman
Senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center

Proposals from Biden and Trump

Trump wants to extend all TCJA provisions and Biden plans to extend tax breaks for taxpayers who make less than $400,000, which is most Americans. 
Biden’s top economic advisor, Lael Brainard, in May called for higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy and corporations to help fund TCJA extensions for middle-class Americans. By comparison, Trump has renewed his support for tariffs, or taxes levied on imported goods from another country.
However, these policy proposals are uncertain, particularly without knowing which party will control the White House and Congress. More