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An original analysis of EIA's final 2025 utility data: average residential bills for all 50 states, D.C. and 1,312 utilities and providers, with inflation, income and grid-region comparisons
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Showing 14 reports
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Household costs$150.68The average U.S. residential electricity customer paid $150.68 a month in 2025, 5.9% more than in 2024 and more than twice the pace of inflation. Customers paid $17.5 billion more than a year earlier. Bills rose fastest in the PJM region (11.6% vs 4.6% elsewhere), 24 utilities raised average bills 20% or more, and the average residential price was 6.9% higher from January to July 2026 than a year earlier.
Consumer rights1.5995The U.S. total fertility rate fell to a record-low 1.5995 births per woman in 2024, while the mean age at first birth reached 27.6. This report separates period fertility from completed family size, documents childlessness and birth order, tests financial-pressure claims against preference and timing evidence, adds a transparent 50-state affordability dataset, and examines what family policy, immigration and productivity can and cannot change.
Consumer rights$20.877BFBI IC3 recorded 1,008,597 complaint reports and $20.877 billion in reported loss during 2025. This report calculates population-adjusted state rates from the FBI and Census inputs, documents the different roles of FTC Consumer Sentinel, CFPB complaint and FinCEN SAR data, and provides a state dashboard and direct reporting routes. Complaint systems are not combined, state patterns are not causal, and the rankings do not measure total fraud prevalence.
Consumer rights$9.8BPublic data show substantial card-dispute activity and travel refund friction, but not that chargebacks are becoming a first resort. This version adds current federal airline-refund rules, a source-reconciled comparison of refund complaint shares by organization type, and an evidence path that keeps merchant refunds, billing errors, unauthorized use and network disputes distinct.
Housing12.1 yearsUnder one standardized scenario, the estimated savings clock ranges from 3.5 years in Pittsburgh to 12.1 years in Los Angeles. These are comparisons built from published Zillow inputs, not forecasts or individualized home-buying timelines.
Banking & cash94%Banking access is widespread but not equal. In the Federal Reserve 2025 survey, 94% of adults had a bank account, yet 12% of banked adults reported paying an overdraft fee. The reported share was 25% among Black banked adults and 8% among White banked adults. Separately, the FDIC estimated that 4.2% of U.S. households were unbanked and 14.2% were underbanked in 2023. This report keeps those populations separate, adds current evidence on financial resilience and digital access, and turns the findings into a seven-setting account-control audit.
Household costs110.7BEA data show 2024 state price levels ranging from 86.9 in Arkansas to 110.7 in California. BLS found housing and transportation absorbed 50.4% of average 2024 spending, while 58% of adults told the Federal Reserve that price changes worsened their finances in 2025.
Housing6.55%The average 30-year mortgage rate was 6.55% on July 16, 2026. FHFA research found that rate lock-in materially reduced fixed-rate home sales in 2022–2023, but its estimates are historical—not forecasts for today or an individual homeowner.
Banking & cash63%In 2025, 63% of U.S. adults said they could cover a $400 emergency with cash or its equivalent, while 55% had three months of expenses set aside and 30% could not cover three months by any means.
Housing47.2%Home values surged more than 47% nationally since 2020 according to FHFA data, pushing millions of long-term homeowners closer to exceeding the $250,000 capital gains exclusion. This report analyzes who is most at risk, how the exclusion works, and what the real tax implications look like when you sell.
Household costs$331,000+The USDA stopped publishing its landmark 'Cost of Raising a Child' report in 2017. Since then, parents have been left piecing together data from dozens of fragmented sources. This report consolidates the latest figures from the USDA baseline, Brookings Institution updates, BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey, Care.com, Child Care Aware of America, and the College Board to deliver the most complete picture of what it actually costs to raise a child in America today.
Retirement35%Only 35% of non-retirees said their retirement plan was on track in the Federal Reserve 2025 survey. BLS found 72% of private-industry workers had access to retirement benefits in March 2025, while 53% participated.
Taxes & debt$18.794TU.S. household debt totaled $18.794 trillion in Q1 2026, up $18 billion from the previous quarter and $591 billion from a year earlier. Credit-card balances declined seasonally to $1.252 trillion but remained $70 billion higher year over year, while 4.8% of total debt was in some stage of delinquency and the share of student-loan balances 90 or more days past due rose to 10.3%.
Taxes & debt$4.9TThe 2026 tax filing season is underway, with more than 150 million individual returns expected. This report examines who actually pays federal income taxes, how effective rates differ from marginal rates, which deductions and credits matter most, how state taxes create winners and losers, and why the IRS estimates $688 billion in taxes go uncollected each year. Data from the IRS, Tax Foundation, CBO, and Joint Committee on Taxation.
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