USHomeFinanceGuide

Homeowners Insurance Non-Renewals Have Surged Nationwide, New NAIC Data Shows Updated September 26, 2026. Every figure below was read on that date from the regulator, federal and residual-market documents listed at the end. No insurer quotes, no comparison-site averages and no star ratings are used anywhere in this article; the premium levels quoted are regulator-published averages, not offers. Hurricane Katrina damage to a mobile home in Davie, Florida, August 2005. Photo by Marvin Nauman/FEMA, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hurricane_damage_to_mobile_home_in_Davie_Florida.jpg). Public domain (U.S. federal government work). How far the non-renewal rate actually moved, and over which years The NAIC published its first national analysis of homeowners market dynamics on July 31, 2026, announced on August 5. It covers 2018 through 2024 and reports non-renewals the insurer started — not the ones the homeowner started — per 1,000 policies in...

Updated September 27, 2026. Every rate, index and dollar figure below was read on that date from the issuing institution named at the end of this page. No lender quote, broker estimate or retailer price appears anywhere in it. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 The week this page was written, and the four weeks that undid it At the end of August the 30-year fixed average had gone almost nowhere: Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey printed 6.65 percent for the week of August 20 and 6.66 percent for the week of August 27. One basis point. Writing "rates barely moved" was correct. Then the following happened, in this order, all of it on the record: Week ending 30-year fixed 15-year fixed What else happened that week Aug 20, 2026 6.65% 5.95% — Aug 27, 2026 6.66% 5.98% — Sept 3, 2026 6.71% 6.04% WTI crude rose from $87.03 (Aug 31) to $92.55 (Sept 3) Sept 10, 2026 6.76% 6.09% 10-year Treasury 4.95% on Sept 10 Sept 17, 2026 6.95% 6.26% FOMC raised the ...

Back-to-School Spending Just Hit a Record $43.3 Billion — Here's the Budget Math That Actually Helps Updated September 26, 2026. Every figure below other than the headline total comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau or the National Center for Education Statistics, and was read that day from the pages linked at the end. Multi-year totals are arithmetic done here with the escalation rate stated next to each one. No retailer, brand or price is quoted anywhere in this article. Illustration — school supplies being distributed to families ahead of the school year (not a photo from a retail purchase). Photo: U.S. Space Force / Airman Aaron Edwards, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons . Start with what kind of number the headline is The $43.3 billion figure comes from an industry survey, not from a federal statistical agency. That is not a criticism — nobody else counts back-to-school spending nationally — but it changes how it should be used. It is a su...

Are Higher Rates Coming Back? The Mortgage Math Worth Running Now Updated September 26, 2026. Every rate, price and limit below was read that day from Freddie Mac, the Federal Reserve Board, the US Treasury, FHFA, the Census Bureau, HUD or the CFPB, all linked at the end. Payment and interest figures are amortisation arithmetic done here on a stated loan, not quotes from any lender. No lender, broker or rate-comparison site is cited anywhere in this article. Illustrative 30-year mortgage calculator. Image: Wikideas1 / Wikimedia Commons , dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0 . Where the rate is this week, and the year it has had Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week of September 24, 2026 puts the 30-year fixed at 7.03% and the 15-year fixed at 6.42% . A year earlier the same survey read 6.30% and 5.49%. So the answer to the question in the headline is that higher rates are not coming back. They came back, in the seven months betwe...

The 2026 Measles Surge: A Working Parent's Back-to-School Checklist Updated September 27, 2026. Every figure below was read on that date from the CDC, its MMWR reports, state health departments, peer-reviewed cost studies and the BLS, all listed at the end. Cost figures are labelled with the year of dollars they are stated in, because they span 2011 to 2019 and are not interchangeable. No insurer or retailer prices appear. This is a summary of published data, not medical advice. A medical worker administers a measles vaccine in Germany in 2021. Photo by U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Aaron Duncan; public domain in the United States. Source and license . Is "surge" the right word? The counts say yes CDC's published figures, as of September 24, 2026 : 3,659 confirmed cases this year across 47 jurisdictions, 40 new outbreaks , with 95% of cases outbreak-associated and one death recorded. Against the two prior full years — 2,289 cases in 2025 and 285 in 20...

Putting Your Child on YouTube: The Trust Percentages, the Penalty Per Violation, and What "Made for Kids" Removes Updated September 27, 2026. Every figure below was read on that date from the FTC, the Federal Register, state legislatures, the IRS, the BLS, Census, NCES and YouTube's own documentation, all listed at the end. Items are marked ordered (a court, agency or statute has acted), published (a platform describing its own product), or proposed (a bill not yet law). No retailer prices or star ratings appear. Not legal or tax advice. A young child using a tablet—an image that more closely matches today’s family-video and privacy discussion. Photo by StockSnap, used without modification. Wikimedia Commons source ; CC0 1.0 . The number that ends most of these conversations Start with the one figure that changes the arithmetic of a family channel: the maximum civil penalty per violation under the FTC Act provisions used to enforce COPPA is 53,088 dollars . It was ...