Relief Checks: Summary News 19 December
Inflation Relief: Latest News
Headlines: Monday, 19 December 2022
- Date set for Supreme Court to hear two challenges to Biden student loan forgiveness plan
- Inflation increased 0.1 percent in November & 7.1 percent year-over-year boost in prices.
- Federal Reserve continues to push up rates as inflation begins to slow
- As housing prices fall, some cities become more affordable destinations for young people.
- Some workers may not be required to pay taxes in 2023
- Workplacefatalities increased by almost nine percent from 2020 to 2021
- Thousands of workers will see a raise thanks to increases in the minimum wage that take effect in 2023
Ten housing markets expected to grow in 2023
The top ten metro areas posed to see their housing markets grow over the next year will do so thanks to their "solid mix of local economic conditions, proximity to larger employment centers, and critically, more affordable housing," according to Realtor.com.
Whereas only 4% of housing is affordable for a family earning the local median income in the ten markets that will see the weakest growth, the metro areas below have around 23% of the housing inventory at affordable levels.
1 Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT
3 Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN
4 Worcester, MA-CT
5 Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY
6 Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC
7 Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI
8 Columbia, SC
9 Chattanooga, TN-GA
10 Toledo, Ohio
Our Administration has officially surpassed our roadmap to take 100 actions this year to strengthen energy efficiency standards. These actions will help save American families at least $100 a year through lower energy bills, this winter and beyond.
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Thanks to the COLA, Social Security payments will increase in 2023. Here’s when the increases will start and how much more money you’ll receive.
Supreme Court sets date to hear legal challenges to Biden's student loan forgiveness
The Supreme Court earlier this month agreed to take up two challenges to President Biden' student loan forgiveness program on an expedited basis. Now a date has been set, both will be heard on 28 February, for the justices to hear oral arguments to determine the legality of the executive order that if upheld would erase up to $20,000 of federal student loan debt.
With the cost of living rising across the US you may be thinking of which areas in the US are cheaper than where you live currently. Compared to much of the world the country has a high median wage but it also has a large number of places where you salary could go further. With changes to work patterns due to the covid-19 pandemic this could be as good a time as ever to explore somewhere new, especially with house prices expected to fall next year.
National average gas price on the way to below $3 per gallon
The falling price of gasoline has come as a relief to Americans struggling with rising prices. After peaking over $5 per gallon on average in the US six months ago, the price is on track to dip below $3 per gallon nationally by Christmas Day.
Why are California house prices set to fall?
With pending sales showing a 50 percent drop from a year ago, we can expect additional tempering in housing demand in the coming months, as we previously forecasted. Home prices will also moderate further over the next several months as interest rates remain elevated in the near term and seasonal factors come into play.
Along with New York, California is one of the msot expensive US states for buying a home.
House prices nationally rose by 45 percent between January 2020 and June 2022, that’s 15 percent more than the run up to the last housing market bubble. In the same period, house prices in California rose 47%.
However, this looks set to change and prices are already on the way down.
Tesla shares rise on Twitter news
The carmaker’s value is up by 1.7% at the time of writing at $152.72. This rise equates to $5 billion.
However this is far behind the losses felt throughtout the whole year of 50%.
Elon Musk looks set to step down as Twitter boss after a public vote he said he would abide to has forced him out.
Such a move would have many repercussions not just for Twitter but also the wider world of investing. Already Tesla stock has increased while analysts have been giving their thoughts on what could happen to Twitter and Musk's car dealership.
Tesla stock has been struggling all year
One group that would no doubt be pleased by Musk stepping down as Twitter headwould be Tesla investors. During 2022, Tesla stock has fallen by 50% to a market value of $470 billion in 2022. Coupled with a poor investment atmosphere there are also worries that Musk is committing too much time to Twitter instead of his other companies. Tesla stock rose 3.5% in pre-market trading on Monday.
Eight successive hikes have brought the current benchmark overnight interest rate to the 4.25-4.50 percent range. The latest increase of half a percentage was a step down from the four consecutive three-quarters of a percentage.
But interest rate change remains a blunt tool to tackle a nuanced economic issue and its use doesn’t come without some pain. However, “the worst pain would be if we failed to act,” according to the Fed chair.
We take a look at some of the consequences of the interest rate hike and how it could affect you…
Market outlook a week before Christmas
US stocks dropped for a third straight session and suffered a second straight week of losses. The Fed hiek as well as similar interest rate rises scared investors.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled more policy tightening would come next year, and the central bank projected that interest rates would top the 5% mark in 2023
As we approach the end of the year, some will already be looking ahead to 2023 and the upcoming tax season in the United States. Most of the pandemic-era tax relief initiatives have now ended and we’re back to normality when it comes to tax filing.
However not everyone is required to file a return with the IRS and low earners will not have to pay tax. If your total earnings are less than the standard deduction amount then you will not be required to declare taxes.
Biden celebrates inflation progress
In a world where inflation is rising at double digits in many major economies around the world, inflation is coming down in America.
In fact, this new report is the fifth month in a row where annual inflation has fallen in the United States. Inflation outside of food and energy, a key measure of — that economists use, also fell.
Make no mistake — prices are still too high. We have a lot more work to do. But things are getting better, headed in the right direction.
Will the Federal Reserve methods actually deal with inflation?
The Federal Reserve is fulfilling it's remit by attempting to bring down inflation by any means necessary, announcing that there will be another interest rate hike of 0.5 percentage points. This is the fifth interest rate increase of 2022 and is a clear indicator of the Fed's proactive stance.
But is the battle against inflation worth the risk of a recession? CNBC's Jim Kramer gives his thoughts...
Come January, workers in two dozen states that get paid the minimum wage will see a raise. Three others and the District of Columbia will follow suit later in 2023.
Three states will raise their minimum wage to $15 or more joining California and the District of Columbia as well as a handful of municipalities that have already mandated the sought for level. That amount is more than twice the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour which has been in place since the summer of 2009.
Greg Heilman takes you through the data.
New data shows how inflation impacted personal income in 2021
As the year come to an end, the Bureau of Economic Analysis has released a new blog on how inflation impacted households in 2021 when prices really began to trend upward.
The new report shows that PCE inflation (which does not include food or energy costs), increased to varying levels across the country, with the District of Columbia seeing a 12.5 percent boost, and consumers in West Virginia only feeling a 2.0 bump.
"Real personal income increased in 48 states and the District of Columbia in 2021. The percent change in real personal income across all 50 states and the District of Columbia ranged from 7.2 percent in Nevada to –2.7 percent in Alaska," reads the blog.
Good morning and welcome to AS USA
You join us on the eve of the World Cup final for news on the state of the US economy.