- A new record — and not a good one…
- Americans are getting hammered…
- Remember Tesla at $17. A few turned $50,000 into over $1.5 million in just over a decade. Now a major SpaceX IPO could be around the corner. Learn more about the “SpaceX” play before it’s too late?
Dear Reader,
For the first occasion since April, Israel and Iran exchanged direct blows upon each other this weekend.
And so a peaceful resolution to the 100-day conflict recedes further from view.
Yet President Trump counsels mutual restraint. He further claims that Israel will have “no choice” but to accede to any resolution between the United States and Iran.
Of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu the president snarled, “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn’t call the shots.”
Yet today we direct our attention away from the martial arena. We instead acknowledge a milestone, a fresh record height — though not a fresh stock market height.
It is, in fact, a record height few Americans will cheer.
Sticker Shock
Reports Realtor.com:
- Homeowners faced a sticker shock at the end of 2025 as the average monthly mortgage payment topped $2,000 for the first time — a historic milestone reflecting the combined pressure of high home prices and elevated interest rates.
- In the fourth quarter of last year, the average payment for existing mortgage holders climbed to $2,005, representing a striking 44% surge compared to 2021, according to the latest quarterly outstanding mortgage report from the Realtor.com® economic research team.
- In other words, the typical homeowner saw their monthly mortgage payment jump by more than $600 in just three years, an eye-watering surge.
A $600 monthly leap in a mere three years! How do you like it?
And so the common American struggles to hold his position upon the hamster wheel.
Iran War Hits Households in the Wallet
Moody’s Analytics reports that the United States household has ladled out an additional $750 on expenses since the Iran conflict commenced.
Energy expenses account for $447 of the $750.
In all, Moody’s claims the Iran conflict has cost United States households some $100 billion.
Meantime, the inflation rate — the official inflation rate — runs to 3.8%. I hazard the actual rate runs higher, substantially higher in many instances.
It is nonetheless the highest inflation rate in three years. And the inflation rate may increase yet.
The Survey of Professional Forecasters, a gaggle of economists, forecasts the inflation rate will scale 6% in the year’s second quarter.
I cling remorselessly to John Kenneth Galbraith’s theory that the sole function of economic forecasting is to make the profession of astrology look respectable.
Yet in this particular instance I hazard the economists’ divination may prove accurate.
And we must not forget that the broken grandfather tells accurate time twice daily. Thus the Survey of Professional Forecasters may prove accurate by chance alone.
In words other, they are “due.”
It Gets Worse
Let us now heap Pelion upon Ossa, as the Greeks would say. That is, let us proceed from bad to worse.
Atop his elevated mortgage payments and inflation’s theft of his money, the common American must bear the increasing burden of health insurance.
Reports the wishful but lost-cause Americans for Limited Government:
- Healthcare costs shouldn’t eclipse the cost of owning a home; but for millions of Americans, that’s exactly what’s happening.
- The numbers don’t lie. The average American family now pays over $2,200 a month for health insurance; surprisingly, that’s more than the average monthly mortgage payment of $2,000. Let that sink in. Keeping a roof over your head costs less than keeping your family covered.
Thus we learn that the common American household consecrates $50,400 annually to shelter and health insurance alone. Handsome!
Continues Americans for Limited Government:
- Paying for healthcare has now become the top financial worry for American families, eclipsing housing, groceries, and retirement. People are skipping prescriptions, delaying procedures, and choosing between medication and meals.
Who Cares, Look at the Stock Market
Is it a wonder then that total United States household debt scaled a record high $18.8 trillion in the year’s first quarter?
Or that the percentage of credit card balances 90 days or more delinquent has attained its highest rate in 15 years?
Or that United States consumer sentiment presently gutters at record depths?
Yet fret not, say Wall Street’s drummers.
The stock market floats at or near record heights.
Go munch cake is their counsel.
Regards,
Brian Maher
for Freedom Financial News
