The Great Housing Standoff of 2025

(from CNBC.com)

With a stormy season ahead and billions in potential damages looming, now’s the time to check your homeowners insurance before it’s too late.

The 2025 hurricane season is expected to be intense, with up to 19 named storms and possibly five major hurricanes. Experts say homeowners should review their insurance policies now, before any storms form, because once a hurricane is on the radar, it’s often too late to make changes.

A big risk is being underinsured: if your policy limits don’t reflect rising construction costs or recent home upgrades, you could end up paying out of pocket to rebuild.

You also need to check your deductibles, especially for wind damage, which can be much higher than your standard deductible and could leave you on the hook for thousands. Flood damage, which accounts for 90% of U.S. disaster losses, usually isn’t included in standard homeowners policies, you’ll need separate flood insurance for that.

And don’t wait until a storm’s coming to buy it: most flood policies have a 30-day waiting period. With insurers tightening up and extreme weather getting worse, taking a few proactive steps now could save you from massive headaches later.

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Is Inflation Data Still Trustworthy?

(from Housingwire.com)

If we can’t trust the numbers, how do we track the truth? Concerns are mounting that inflation data may be less reliable than it looks, and that’s a big deal for your wallet.

Economists are raising red flags over the accuracy of U.S. inflation data, especially as federal hiring freezes strain the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) ability to collect reliable information. To fill in the gaps, the BLS uses estimates, and recently, those “best guesses” made up nearly 30% of the monthly inflation report, up from the usual 10%.

That jump has some experts questioning whether the Consumer Price Index (CPI) can still be trusted, especially as markets and policy decisions depend on that data. These concerns come as President Trump’s global tariffs create fresh inflation risks, even though official reports still show prices easing.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Secretary suggested changing how GDP is calculated to downplay the impact of government spending cuts, a move critics say could distort the bigger economic picture. Accurate government data is vital for industries like housing and real estate, which rely on information from the BLS, Census Bureau, and HUD.

If that data becomes unreliable, it could blur everything from mortgage forecasts to inflation tracking, and make smart decision-making a lot harder.

Read more here