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77 June 2025 J O U R N A L June 2025 » "Shoppers see more homes for sale today than one year ago, and encourag- ingly, many of these homes have been added at moderate income price points," said Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com. "But as this report shows, we still don't have an abundance of homes that are affordable to low- and moderate-income households, and the progress that we've seen is not happening everywhere. It's been concentrated in the Midwest and the South." CONSUMERS REVEAL FINANCIAL STRESSORS AMID RISING COSTS & DEBTS A ccording to a recent nation- wide poll by Discover Personal Loans, some 84% of Ameri- cans want to improve their financial status, yet 41% are not sure how to handle their finances appropriately. In the upcoming year, 20% of Ameri- cans anticipate their financial status to worsen, while 41% of them think it will remain the same or improve (38%). Americans anticipate inf lation will increase their costs in many key catego- ries in 2025: • "In which categories do you think you'll spend the most money on in 2025? Please select up to 5." Survey respondents chose up to five top spending categories from among 14 categories presented as answer options. • Subset: "Compared to the last 12 months, how much more or less do you anticipate your top spending categories will cost over the next 12 months?" Data shown in the table represents the percentage of Amer- icans who believe their costs will increase over the next 12 months, from among those who chose the respective spending category as among their top 5 for spending the most money in 2025. "I'm inspired that Americans are motivated to seek a brighter financial future, and that many are making or searching for a game plan to achieve their financial goals," said Dan Nick- ele, VP of Discover Personal Loans. "American consumers also told us they anticipate costs to rise in categories like groceries and healthcare. Weathering the storm requires a strong financial foundation which can include taking actions like creating a budget, con- tributing to an emergency fund, and exploring opportunities to refinance high-interest debt." American Consumers Prepare for Inf lation & Financial Debt There was disagreement among poll participants over the general di- rection they thought the U.S. economy was heading in when asked to consider the current state of the economy: 15% say neither, 31% think we're going in the right way, and 48% say we're going in the wrong direction. Given that 86% of Americans are concerned about their financial status to some extent and that two-thirds (66%) feel high or moderate worry, economic uncertainty may be inf luencing financial stress. Over the previous five years, finan- cial stress has stayed high. In addition—and unfortunately— approximately 44% of Americans claim to be in debt at the moment. Of those debtors: • 84% say inf lation makes managing personal debt challenging. • 83% say a budget is a helpful tool for managing personal debt, but only 44% say they created a budget for 2025. • 77% say paying off personal debt is expensive. Spending category % of Americans that expect the category to be among their top 5, for spending the most money in 2025* % of Americans that believe their costs will increase ‡ % of Americans that believe their costs will increase dramat- ically or significantly (6% to more than 10%) ‡ Groceries 70% 67% 45% Housing 49% 54% 30% Healthcare/ Medi- cal Expenses 30% 67% 39% Debt repayment 29% 50% 27% Transportation 26% 53% 29%