Americans are struggling to afford essentials like food, child care, housing, and energy. And many don’t expect their situation to improve.

Policymakers and community leaders need clear, timely data to understand how rising costs affect people in their communities and where pressures are most acute. This tracker brings together the latest available data on earnings, household costs, and financial strain to provide a clear picture of affordability across the country.

It monitors trends in housing, health care, child care, energy, gas, and other essential expenses, alongside earnings and indicators of financial distress. A companion brief outlines policy solutions for local, state, and federal policymakers to create an affordable future for the people in their communities.

Key Takeaways

• Nearly half of people in American families cannot afford the true cost of living. Urban research finds 49 percent of people in American families don’t have the resources to cover essential expenses to live securely in their community.
• Gas and electricity prices are rising faster than earnings. Residential electricity bills outpaced earnings in 31 states between June 2025 and June 2026, with customers paying about $5 more per month on average. Since January 2025, gas prices have risen by 33 percent, an average increase of $1.02 a gallon nationally, while nominal earnings have grown only 6 percent.
• Health insurance premiums for unsubsidized benchmark plans in the Marketplace rose by 22 percent between 2025 and 2026. Monthly health insurance premiums for the second-lowest-cost Silver health plan on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace are up 22 percent since last year, now $611. States with the highest year-over-year increases are Arkansas (69 percent), Washington (45 percent), Tennessee (38 percent), Mississippi (38 percent), and Texas (35 percent). During the same period, premiums in the employer-sponsored health insurance markets increased by 5 percent on average.
• Housing and child care prices continue to strain family budgets. The costs of child care and rent have climbed more quickly than earnings over the past decade, leaving families with two young children paying $6,600 more for child care annually and renters paying $710 more a month for housing than in 2017. However, since January 2025, rent increases have lessened, with earnings growing faster than rents in all but eight states: Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
• Affordability pressures are spreading beyond traditionally high-cost areas. Many previously low-cost regions, including Rochester, New York, and the Atlanta, Chicago, and Louisville, Kentucky, metropolitan areas, have seen housing, health care, and grocery costs rise more quickly than other areas.

In the charts below, explore these trends and more using data over time at the national, state, and congressional district levels.