Topic · 6 stories
Money
Feeling like your money buys less than it used to? These pages measure it: what a dollar is worth, what groceries did this year, and what your first salary would be now.
Food & climate
What is the climate doing to food prices?
Noticed the chocolate and the coffee outrunning the rest of your shop? The world prices behind both have broken away from the pack - and named attribution science says why. Most of the basket has done nothing of the kind.
Updates monthly Read →Rent
Why is rent so high?
Squeezed by the rent, or bracing for the renewal letter? Here's what the median renter pays, how fast rents are climbing against the long record, and the one number - empty rentals - that decides where they go next.
Updates monthly Read →Mortgages
When will mortgage rates come down?
Waiting for rates to fall before you buy or refinance? Here's this week's average against every week since 1971, the two dials that move it, and what today's rate does to a monthly payment on a typical home.
Updates weekly Read →Groceries
Why are groceries getting so expensive?
If your food bill keeps creeping up, this page names the culprits: every staple ranked by how much dearer it got in a year, with the reasons behind the big movers.
Updates monthly Read →Currency
Is the dollar losing value?
Half the headlines say the dollar is sliding. Here's the measured version - its value against the currencies America trades with, week by week - and what a weaker or stronger dollar changes about your life.
Updates weekly Read →Inflation
What is your first salary worth in today's money?
Was everything really cheaper back then? Type in any year and settle it: what your first salary is worth today, and what a dollar bought the year you remember.
Updates monthly Read →Where this data comes from
All of our data comes from live, free government and independent research sources - the US Energy Information Administration's weekly and monthly surveys, and consumer-price data via FRED. Every story links its own further reading, so you can always dig deeper than we did.