The average person today can expect to live far longer than someone born in 1960, regardless of where they live.
This chart, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, tracks life expectancy at birth across four World Bank income groups. While high-income countries still have the longest lifespans, the biggest gains have come elsewhere. Upper-middle income countries have added more than three decades to life expectancy, while low-income countries have made substantial progress as well.
The data for this visualization comes from World Bank via FRED. It tracks life expectancy at birth by income group from 1960 to the latest available data (2024).
High-Income Countries Still Lead
High-income countries still have the highest life expectancy, reaching 80.3 years in 2024.
That is up from 68.3 years in 1960, a gain of 12 years. These countries started from a much higher baseline, meaning their gains have been slower but still substantial.
Examples include the U.S., Germany, and Japan.
Upper-Middle Income Countries Saw the Fastest Gains
Upper-middle income countries posted the largest increase, rising from 41.9 years in 1960 to 76.3 years.
That is a gain of 34.4 years, the fastest improvement of any group in the dataset. This category includes countries such as China, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa.
Much of this improvement coincided with rising incomes, better sanitation, expanded vaccination programs, lower child mortality, and broader access to healthcare. Together, these changes helped push life expectancy in many middle-income countries toward levels once seen only in the world’s wealthiest economies.
The Global Life Expectancy Gap Has Narrowed
In 1960, people in high-income countries lived about 27 years longer than those in low-income countries.
Today, the gap stands at roughly 16 years. While a significant difference remains, low-income countries have added more than 23 years to average life expectancy since 1960. In other words, much of the world’s longevity progress has come from countries that started furthest behind.
However, the remaining gap shows that income, healthcare access, and living conditions continue to shape longevity worldwide.
When my neighbor wanted a vision of what his fence could look like, I didn’t hesitate to ask ChatGPT to create a mock-up. I took a photo of the fence and asked it to overlay a potted Jasmin espaliered to it, after a couple of tweaks, and all of about one minute later, it gave me this:
During a recent conversation with a diving buddy, he pulled out his phone mid conversation and said “Hey Grok, show me that dive computer we were talking about this morning.” And yes, it’s $580 worth of gorgeous.
Its translation abilities are spectacular, and occasionally hilarious. It really is the Babel fish. Not that long ago I moved to a bank simply because it supported Apple Pay years before the big players. At that time, paying with just the tap of a wrist always garnered astonishment and commentary. Around the same time, voice assistants started crossing the line from novelty to genuinely useful. Set a timer, make an appointment, play some music. Super!
“Alexa, turn the kitchen light on.” Light comes on. “No, turn it off.” “There is no device called ‘it’ to turn off.” Oof!
No memory, no context.
Enter Nabu (yes I know, I haven’t got round to changing the wakeword name yet). Naby knows it turned the kitchen light on, and knows I was referring to the kitchen light when I said “turn it off.” It remembers, it has context, because it’s not just a dumb voice assistant anymore, it is plumbed into my local AI.
The big commercial AI platforms can be connected to these systems, but running it locally means the data stays within the boundaries of my house. It won’t process that mountain of documents or win that tricky legal case yet, but it can keep track of the state of my home and understand what I mean when I speak naturally.
That’s a big deal – because now I don’t have to write and memorize tiresome automations for rigid pre-programmed commands, I can converse with Nabu in human and it understands “all the lights” or “just the downstairs aircons.”
Only five years ago, running an AI model at home was a ridiculous proposition – you’d need datacenter hardware and a tech-bro budget. Now, it’s dramatically cheaper and easier – with consumer GPUs, mini PCs, Ollama and Hugging Face, technically curious people are quietly building surprisingly capable AI systems at home. The GPU that I can hold in my hands doesn’t compete with a datacenter the size of several football fields – but for my homelab tinkerings, it’s surprisingly capable, and is only becoming more so.
I should probably backtrack a little here – I’m enthusing about Home Assistant, which I’ve been running for about 12 years – originally on a Raspberry Pi, now in a VM on ProxmoxVE. Sensors and controllers are scattered all over the house, with a dashboard in a browser acting as mission control. Lights automated with timers and presence detectors. Sun elevation adjusts blinds, curtains react to sunrise and sunset, and moisture sensors trigger irrigation on demand. Solar and battery systems respond to dynamic electricity pricing, buying and selling power depending on what the grid is doing.
Home Assistant proclaimed 2023 to be the Year of the Voice and duly launched a prototype Voice Assistant. At launch, its capabilities were limited. Today, it is genuinely good at a variety of tasks, and it’s all open source so you can build your own device from very inexpensive hardware, and the software is on GitHub.
Local models – Llama, Gemma, Mistral, Qwen – very much lag behind the giant commercial systems, but for experimentation, home automation, and general day-to-day interaction, they’re becoming more and more usable. I personally care about data sovereignty (a huge topic in its own right), so running a local AI grants me a more privacy-conscious workflow, and it still works when the internet doesn’t.
Quite how many months of commercial AI subscriptions I could have got for the price of my GPU is a question I’m deliberately avoiding, predominantly for marital reasons. I rather think of myself as a data nerd. All those sensors collecting all that data in a “If this, then that” environment makes for endless tinkering possibilities. And with an AI-powered Nabu gradually replacing Alexa, my office edges ever closer to Tony Stark’s lair. We’re no longer at “deploying Kubernetes clusters” level of difficulty, but it’s still very much a tinkerer’s space rather than a mainstream consumer appliance. Even so, it feels like a taste of where we’re heading.
The strange thing is how quickly this all stops feeling strange. Talking naturally to an AI that understands context, remembers previous conversations and controls my house may have garnered astonishment and commentary. Now, it’s just another thing sitting quietly in my server rack.
Final Ivy Folds As Columbia University Abandons Test-Optional Admissions Policy
More than three years after adopting test-optional admissions, Columbia University is reversing course and will once again require standardized test scores from prospective students.
Columbia announced on June 13 that, beginning in fall 2027, first-year and transfer applicants will have to submit either SAT or ACT scores to be considered for admission. The university will remain test-optional for the upcoming 2026–27 admissions cycle.
University officials said the decision follows a “multiyear faculty review” that found “test scores, among other factors, were a useful indicator of potential student success.”
“Standardized testing is one of many elements that can demonstrate a foundation of academic excellence; others include your performance in your secondary school coursework and the rigor of your curriculum,” the university stated on a webpage outlining its new policy.
As Bill Pan reports for The Epoch Times,Columbia was among the first elite universities to suspend testing requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic, when widespread school closures and testing disruptions limited students’ access to the SAT and ACT. In 2023, the university extended its test-optional policy indefinitely, becoming the first Ivy League institution to make the change permanent.
It was also the last of the eight Ivy League schools to maintain a test-optional admissions policy.
Princeton University reinstated standardized testing requirements in October 2025, leaving Columbia as the sole Ivy League holdout.
The debate over standardized testing has intensified in recent years as some of the nation’s most selective institutions have restored testing requirements. Like Columbia and Princeton, many of those schools have cited internal data showing that test scores are a strong predictor of academic performance and graduation outcomes.
When Princeton announced its decision, university officials said data collected during five years of test-optional admissions showed that “academic performance at Princeton was stronger for students who chose to submit test scores than for students who did not.”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which reinstated its testing requirement in 2022, also said that considering SAT and ACT scores—particularly math scores—“significantly improves” its ability to predict whether applicants will succeed in the institute’s highly demanding mathematics and math-based science courses.
Critics of standardized testing, however, argue that emphasizing those scores may disadvantage students from low-income and historically underrepresented backgrounds who lack access to expensive tutoring, test-preparation courses, and other educational resources.
Columbia’s move also comes amid renewed interest in standardized testing from the Trump administration.
Administration officials have argued that test-optional admissions policies allow colleges to rely more heavily on subjective criteria, such as personal statements, potentially serving as illegal proxies for race in admissions decisions, a practice the U.S. Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional.
“The persistent lack of available data—paired with the rampant use of ‘diversity statements’ and other overt and hidden racial proxies—continues to raise concerns about whether race is actually used in admissions decisions in practice,” President Donald Trump wrote in an August 2025 memorandum to the secretary of education.
In a proposed compact offered to nine institutions in exchange for preferential access to certain federal funding opportunities, the Trump administration also demanded that they require standardized test scores as part of the admissions process.
The proposal further urged schools to publicly release anonymized admissions data, including applicants’ GPAs, standardized test scores, and other academic measures, broken down by race, national origin, and sex.
Despite the revival of testing requirements at some elite institutions, test-optional admissions remain widespread nationwide.
According to FairTest, an advocacy group opposing the use of standardized testing in college admissions, more than 90 percent of ranked four-year colleges and universities in the United States will not require applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores for fall 2026 admissions. The organization’s survey covered approximately 2,000 four-year institutions.
Power transformer lead times now average 128 weeks — nearly 2.5 years — with generator step-up transformers averaging 144 weeks
Prices for power transformers have risen 77% since 2019, driven by surging demand and constrained raw material supply
Cleveland-Cliffs is the only domestic producer of grain-oriented electrical steel, the specialized material transformers require
Demand for generator step-up transformers has grown 274% since 2019, outpacing any increase in manufacturing capacity
For industrial developers, equipment availability has replaced capital and permitting as the primary constraint on project timelines
Roughly 80% of large power transformers used in the U.S. are imported, exposing critical infrastructure to global supply chain pressures
Power transformer lead times have reached levels that are now dictating the pace of industrial expansion across the United States. According to Wood Mackenzie’s second quarter 2025 survey, standard power transformers average 128 weeks for delivery. Generator step-up transformers, which connect large power generation assets to the grid, average 144 weeks. Some orders extend to four years.
For plant operators, energy developers, and infrastructure planners, that math has a direct consequence: a facility that breaks ground today cannot energize its electrical systems on a standard timeline. Equipment availability has become the gating factor for industrial growth, replacing capital availability and permitting as the primary project constraint.
Power Transformer Lead Times: What the Numbers Actually Mean
128 weeks is nearly two and a half years of wait time before a transformer ships. That figure comes from actual utility and developer order data, not theoretical capacity projections. Generator step-up transformers, which are larger and more specialized, run even longer at 144 weeks. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation reported lead times crossing 120 weeks in 2024, and the trend has continued upward into 2025.
The cost pressure is equally significant. Power transformer prices have risen 77% since 2019, according to industry sourcing data. Distribution transformer prices have climbed 78% to 95% over the same period. The underlying material drivers are straightforward: grain-oriented electrical steel prices have roughly doubled since 2020, and copper prices have risen more than 50%. Both materials are core inputs in every transformer manufactured.
The demand surge is not temporary. Generator step-up transformer demand has grown 274% since 2019. Power transformer demand has grown 119% over the same period. AI data center construction, large-scale electrification of industrial processes, and grid modernization programs are all pulling from the same constrained supplier base simultaneously.
The Cleveland-Cliffs Bottleneck: One Domestic Supplier for Critical Steel
The transformer shortage is not simply a volume problem. It has a structural bottleneck at the material level. Transformer cores require grain-oriented electrical steel, a highly engineered material that gives the steel specific magnetic properties needed for efficient power transformation. In the United States, Cleveland-Cliffs is the only domestic producer of this material, operating plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
That concentration means that every U.S. transformer manufacturer drawing on domestic steel supply draws from a single source. When that source faces capacity constraints, pricing pressure, or supply disruptions, the effect ripples through the entire domestic transformer manufacturing base immediately. Roughly 80% of large power transformers used in the U.S. are imported, primarily from Mexico, South Korea, and other international manufacturers, creating additional exposure to global trade conditions.
The Biden administration awarded Cleveland-Cliffs $500 million to upgrade its electrical steel plants under the CHIPS and Infrastructure framework. Key elements of that grant have since been reviewed under the current administration, adding uncertainty to the domestic steel expansion timeline.
Who Is Driving the Demand Surge
Three distinct demand categories are converging on the same equipment market at the same time:
AI data centers: Hyperscale data center construction requires massive electrical infrastructure. A single large AI training cluster can require hundreds of megawatts of power delivery, each requiring transformers at multiple points in the distribution chain.
Industrial electrification: Manufacturing facilities converting from fossil-fuel-powered processes to electric systems require new transformer capacity at the facility level, compounding grid-level demand.
Grid modernization: Aging transmission infrastructure across the U.S. requires transformer replacement at a scale that was already behind schedule before the AI and electrification waves arrived.
These three demand categories do not share a common peak cycle. They are all active simultaneously, and none shows signs of near-term deceleration.
What Industrial Leaders Should Do Now
The strategic implication for any organization with capital projects in the pipeline is straightforward: equipment procurement planning must now precede, not follow, project financial approval. Waiting until a project clears its budget and permitting phase to begin transformer sourcing can add two to four years to a project timeline before the first piece of steel is bent on site.
Long-term supply agreements with transformer manufacturers are becoming a competitive tool. Organizations that lock in delivery slots years in advance gain a scheduling advantage that cannot be bought at spot pricing once a project is ready to execute. Similarly, projects with flexibility on grid interconnect timing may benefit from engaging utilities earlier in the planning process to understand equipment delivery realities.
The domestic manufacturing response is underway: nearly $2 billion has been directed toward North American transformer production expansion, with new capacity from Hitachi Energy, Siemens Energy, and others projected to come online by 2028. However, that capacity does not solve the current shortage. Projects executing between now and 2028 face the current market as it exists today.
Frequently Asked Questions: U.S. Power Transformer Shortage
How long are power transformer lead times right now?
As of the second quarter of 2025, standard power transformers average 128 weeks for delivery. Generator step-up transformers average 144 weeks. Some specialized orders are extending to four years. These are verified order-based averages from Wood Mackenzie’s industry survey, not theoretical estimates.
Why are transformer lead times so long?
Demand has outpaced manufacturing capacity across all transformer categories simultaneously. Generator step-up transformer demand grew 274% since 2019. Power transformer demand grew 119%. Meanwhile, domestic manufacturing capacity has not scaled proportionally, and the sole U.S. producer of the required grain-oriented electrical steel faces its own capacity limits.
How much have transformer prices increased?
Power transformer prices have risen 77% since 2019. Distribution transformer prices have risen 78% to 95%. Generator step-up transformer prices have risen 45%. The increases reflect both raw material cost inflation and the pricing power that comes with constrained supply against surging demand.
Who makes grain-oriented electrical steel in the United States?
Cleveland-Cliffs is the only domestic producer of grain-oriented electrical steel, operating facilities in Pennsylvania and Ohio. This concentration creates a single point of supply constraint for all U.S. transformer manufacturers relying on domestic steel. Approximately 80% of large power transformers used in the U.S. are imported, reflecting the limited domestic manufacturing base.
What is driving the surge in transformer demand?
Three concurrent demand waves are driving the surge: AI data center construction requiring massive power delivery infrastructure, industrial electrification converting fossil-fuel processes to electric systems, and grid modernization replacing aging transmission infrastructure. These three categories do not share a common peak cycle, and all are active simultaneously.
What should industrial planners do about transformer lead times?
Equipment procurement planning must precede project financial approval. Waiting until a project clears budget and permitting to begin transformer sourcing can add two to four years to the execution timeline. Long-term supply agreements and early utility engagement on grid interconnect timing are the two most effective tools available in the current market.
Newsom Announces He’s Being Investigated By Trump Justice Department
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that the Department of Justice has opened an investigation into him and his wife, claiming the probe is political retaliation as he weighs a bid for president in 2028.
“In recent days, federal agents have knocked on the doors of family, friends, and former employees, not because they found a crime, because they’re simply trying to find one,” Newsom said in a video posted to X.
In recent days, federal agents have knocked on the doors of family friends and former employees.
Not because they found a crime. Because they are simply trying to find one.
They are demanding records.
They are abusing the grand jury process.
Digging through years and years of random documents.
“They’re demanding records, they’re abusing the grand jury process, digging through years and years of random documents. Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets, he’s coming after me because I’m considering running for president, because he hates that I’ve consistently called him out over and over again for his lies and deceit.”
“Donald Trump is simply the most corrupt president in American history,” the governor added.
“He’s coming after my wife, Jen, a public servant, a woman who’s dedicated her life to supporting women and girls, someone who has done nothing wrong other than having the temerity to advocate for what she believes in,” Newsom said. “If they can’t intimidate me, they’ll go after the mother of our children. Donald Trump picked the wrong target. We have nothing to hide.“
Newsom said Trump’s “political operatives can take every record and read every page,” but said they “will be looking in the wrong place.”
“Because if they really want to find corruption, look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,” he said, before accusing Trump of using the White House to enrich himself.
“Donald Trump is selling the presidency. He’s running the largest cash heist in American political history, trading foreign tariff relief for approval of his golf courses, day trading behind the Resolute Desk, reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in personal profit,” the governor said. “And he’s doing it openly, he’s doing it on camera. He did it last night on the White House lawn. He’s doing it through crypto currencies, he’s doing it through the receipt of a $400 million private jet from a foreign government that he plans to keep when he leaves office through his son’s ventures in countries where his own administration is simultaneously making policy.”
Earlier this year, President Trump launched a sweeping “Fraud Investigation of California,” blasting the state for wasting and potentially stealing billions in federal taxpayer dollars. California officials, including Newsom, have whined that the probes are nothing but political revenge.
New: A source familiar with the situation tells me that there are “several investigations” ongoing relating to Gov. Gavin Newsom — I’m told they are focused on his wife’s taxes + his chief of staff. They did not originate from the main DOJ, but are out of Sacramento and involve…
Federal prosecutors say the state’s hospice industry is absolutely riddled with fraud, with Los Angeles County alone responsible for a staggering 18% of the entire nation’s home health care billing. Officials estimate up to $3.5 billion in potential fraud, including one crooked doctor who reportedly billed $120 million in a single year for just 1,900 patients.
U.S. First Assistant Attorney Bill Essayli didn’t hold back, ripping Newsom as the “king of fraud” for his disastrous oversight of $24 billion poured into homelessness programs in recent years with shockingly little to show for it.
“We used to say that we don’t know what 2050 will look like. Now it’s more like we don’t know what 2030 will look like.”
– Jesus Enrique Rosas
You must be thinking that reality is pushing its luck with the president bringing this Iran business – a war, actually, let’s face it – to a favorable conclusion around dinner time Sunday evening (yawn) and then Mr. DJT sliding directly into his seat on the White House lawn to enjoy the special 80th birthday edition of Testosterone Gone Wild, that is, a full card of tattoo-bedizend savages beating the crap out of each other UFC style, like it was a Hooters parking lot on wife-swap night. . . why, it just doesn’t get more surreal than that.
Imagine what Victoria Nuland, Robert Reich, George Stephanopoulis, Elizabeth Warren, and other good folks of that ilk must be thinking. The. . . (Sputter sputter) indelicacy of it all! A freaking peace deal, and now this low-rent spectacle of ultra-violence! Like their whole world had turned out to be the meanest, lowest, most sordid backwater of the Marvel Comics universe where no one has ever heard of chardonney. The ape-men slugging, kicking, gouging, and head-butting each other half to death is one thing. . . but to let the slip the opportunity to continue the Iran War with its downstream emoluments for another nineteen years. . . well, now that is an affront to all that is holy in the sub-basements of Foggy Bottom and the broom closets of Langley. As you read this on Monday morning the cries for impeachment will be ringing across the District of Columbia like calls to prayer in Mamdani’s Caliphate on the Hudson.
Surely, you’ll get more details on the Iran deal as Monday spins out, but the terms look not bad at all for Western Civ in the news media’s early shorthand reports:
Teheran pledges no nukes, ever, no how, no way. They will allow their cache of super-enriched uranium to be destroyed.
The Strait of Hormuz will reopen promptly, free to international shipping, no tolls, no piratical monkey-business.
No more Iran funding terrorist proxy groups. That means you Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and sundry cadres of jihadi maniacs ‘out there’ in the world’s hotspots.
Speaking of which, Mr. Netanyahu felt the president’s wrath earlier on Sunday (once again) when he replied to a Hezbollah rocket salvo out of Lebanon with air strikes. But, hey, everybody knows that Israel always and ever answers every attack against it no matter what, because Never Again. Even Mr. Trump knows that, so the whole flap was a sort of mummery. Obviously, Hezbollah must be anxious to wreck the peace deal, since without Iran’s ongoing largess they will not know where their next meal is coming from, not to mention their next shipment of missiles. If Iran actually complies with the deal, Hezbollah can have no more support. There may soon be no more Hezbollah. (Boo-hoo.)
Which raises the next obvious concern, namely, Iran is not known for keeping its word with The Great Satan (us). There is every reason to believe that the vaunted deal is just another sorry episode of them stringing the USA along, playing us. But Mr. Trump has made it clear he reserves the option to rev up the bombers and “do a number on” the Islamic Republic if they pull a fast one on this.
For its part, Iran is crowing in its own state-controlled press that it has won the war. Iran can say whatever it wants to — world opinion will probably not be fooled — if it makes the people running the joint feel good about themselves losing a war. It’ll be Iran’s actions that matter. There’s a chance, perhaps a low-percentage chance, but a chance nonetheless, that Iran has been persuaded to stop being insane.
They do have an opportunity to put jihad aside, sell oil and pistachios to the world, and try being a normal nation for a change.
It’s asking a lot, I’m sure, but there’s a lot in it for them. If they actually showed a serious attitude adjustment, you can bet that Mr. Trump would offer help setting up bigly capital investments there, enabling new trade relations, and easing them back into a world of non-insane, sovereign polities with reality-based interests.
He already invited them to join the Abraham Accords, to establish full diplomatic relations with the other signers, embassies, direct flights, trade, tourism, and security cooperation.
So, let’s stand by and see if the Memorandum of Understanding gets signed later this week. The president is winging to Geneva for the G-7 as I write. The other parties to the deal are on their way there, too.
The face to face meet-up between the American President and whoever Iran sends to the ceremony will be more thrillingly momentous than any pairing of UFC cage fighters on the White House lawn.
In fact, I’m awfully glad that over-the-top extravaganza is done with.
The triumphalism is disconcerting.
We still have a very serious cold civil war to deal with here in the Homeyland, and a national mental health crisis that turns US daily life into a real time horror movie from sea to shining sea.
The party of “our democracy” still works avidly to overthrow the republic, and extravagant sports entertainments will not avail to make that stop.
We need perp walks and trials. . .sober business. . .a cold reckoning with our own monsters.
Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest public Bitcoin holder, added to its cryptocurrency reserves last week as BTC continued to trade below the company’s average cost basis of about $75,700.
Strategy acquired 1,587 Bitcoin (BTC) for $100 million between June 8 and Sunday, according to Monday’s 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Source: SEC
The purchase was made at an average price of $63,024 per Bitcoin, bringing the company’s overall average cost basis slightly lower to $75,656.
With the latest buy, Strategy now holds 846,842 BTC, accumulated at a total cost of $64.07 billion.
At the current price of about $66,216 per bitcoin, those holdings are worth roughly $56.1 billion, according to CoinGecko data.
In the filing, the company said it raised about $209 million by selling 1.73 million MSTR shares during the period. Preferred share programs, including STRC, STRF, STRK and STRD, showed no activity during the week.
According to STRC.live, a tracker of Strategy’s preferred stock programs, STRC traded below its $100 par value for a fourth consecutive week as of June 12. The stock remained in the mid-$96 range, marking its longest stretch below par since launch.
STRC closed at $94.80 on Friday, down around 1%, according to TradingView data.
Strategy executive chairman Saylor hinted at the latest purchase in a post on X on Sunday, writing, “Still adding dots,” a phrase investors have come to associate with the company’s upcoming Bitcoin acquisitions.
The latest buy comes about two weeks after Strategy disclosed the sale of 32 BTC on June 1, its first reported Bitcoin sale in years. While the transaction represented only a tiny fraction of the company’s holdings, the sale ignited debate in the community, with some industry observers questioning whether the company was moving away from its long-standing buy-and-hold approach.
Saylor recently defended the sale, telling Cointelegraph that Bitcoin treasury companies must retain the ability to sell holdings to support dividend-paying securities.
There were a total of 40,355 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in May—down 5 percent month-over-month but up by 14 percent compared to the same period in 2025.
“The increase marks the continuation of a trend of rising foreclosure activity on an annual basis,” real estate analytics company ATTOM said in a June 11 statement.
In April, foreclosure filings were up 18 percent from a year back. And in the first quarter of 2026, filings were up 26 percent compared to Q1 of 2025.
“Lenders repossessed 4,092 U.S. properties through completed foreclosures (REOs) in May 2026, down 20 percent from the previous month but up 6 percent from a year ago,” ATTOM said.
Foreclosure is a legal process by which a mortgage lender repossesses a property due to borrower’s failure to make mortgage payments. The lender initially issues a notice of default when payments are missed for 90 days. If the borrower does not settle payments within 30 days, the property is repossessed and eventually sold to new buyers.
In May, one in every 3,562 U.S. housing units had a foreclosure filing, ATTOM reported. Florida had the highest foreclosure rate, with one in 2,110 units. This was followed by South Carolina, Maryland, Nevada, and Indiana.
Among metro areas with a population of at least 2 million, Cleveland, Ohio, had the highest foreclosure rate last month, with one in 1,524 housing properties. This was followed by Baltimore, Maryland; Tampa, Florida; Riverside, California; and Orlando, Florida.
As for states with the highest number of completed foreclosures, Texas ranked at the top with 519, followed by California, Florida, Illinois, and Michigan.
“Foreclosure starts and completed foreclosures both increased compared to last year, reflecting ongoing pressure on some homeowners as elevated mortgage rates, rising ownership costs, and affordability constraints persist,” CEO at ATTOM Rob Barber said.
“At the same time, foreclosure volumes remain well below historical norms, indicating that the housing market continues to show resilience despite these challenges.”
In a June 12 post, legal services company Nolo predicted foreclosure rates to gradually rise in the latter part of this year.
“Factors such as surging insurance premiums, elevated interest rates, climbing HOA fees, and reduced buyer demand are contributing to a growing housing crisis,” Nolo said. “Also, markets with high property taxes or economies that rely on volatile sectors (like Las Vegas, Nevada) are at risk of seeing an increase in foreclosures during tough economic times.”
The average weekly mortgage rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has remained above 6 percent for every single week since mid-September 2022, except for a brief dip in late February this year, according to data from Freddie Mac.
Meanwhile, the housing market slowed down in May after improving in April due to the increase in mortgage rates, real estate brokerage Redfin said in a June 3 statement.
The trend of rising foreclosures is likely to continue unless there is significant relief or intervention, Nolo said.
In February, a group of lawmakers reintroduced the Preserving Homes and Communities Act to protect homeowners from foreclosures, according to a Feb. 4 statement from the office of Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.).
The bill seeks to ensure that local entities with public missions, such as municipalities, states, and nonprofits, have the “first opportunity” to buy nonperforming and reperforming mortgages from the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Typically, such loans are sold at a discount to institutional investors and private equity companies via note sale programs.
The bill also seeks to make sure that borrowers receive a notice of at least 90 days before their mortgages are placed in note sales.
“Housing costs are higher than ever before and we need to make it easier for working families to keep a roof over their heads. The national data clearly shows that the current note sales system is not working properly and is prioritizing the wants of investors over the needs of homeowners,” Reed said.
The bill “will implement key reforms to strengthen foreclosure protections and better protect homeowners and communities,” the senator said.
The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
UBS analyst Peter Grom, who covers U.S. consumer staples including packaged food, beverages, and household products, served up a sour outlook for the salty-snack category, warning that the recovery investors had hoped for remains further out than expected.
“Despite recent optimism around a potential recovery in salty snacks, our analysis would suggest the category remains challenged. While tracked channel growth has turned positive relative to prior periods, we have observed momentum beginning to moderate with L13W $ takeaway growth decelerating to +1.2% vs. the +3.4% peak growth seen earlier in the year,” Grom began the note.
Grom pointed out that the salty-snack category remains under pressure from a confluence of headwinds, including rapid GLP-1 adoption, potential SNAP benefit reductions, and mounting macroeconomic challenges faced by cash-strapped consumers.
“The combination of GLP-1 adoption, potential SNAP benefit reductions, and broader consumer spending pressures tied to the current geopolitical conflict has weighed on snack demand,” the analyst said.
Grom noted that the Nielsen data show little evidence of a robust recovery, with buy rates, purchase frequency, spending per trip, units per trip, and overall projected sales all slowing. The category is also losing share to “better-for-you” options.
A Recovery Remains Uncertain
Snack trend down
He pointed out that competitive pressure has greatly intensified, adding that Pepsi remains the junk food king, with nearly half of category sales, but most large incumbents are generating flat-to-negative growth across tracked channels.
Pepsi’s Frito-Lay North America food unit has experienced negative sales growth for much of the past year and continues to lose share despite investments in pricing, promotions, merchandising, and shelf space.
Another pressure point has been declining sales at convenience stores. He said C-store salty-snack sales, historically a strong growth engine, fell 3.5% in the latest 13 weeks as higher pump prices weighed on traffic and impulse purchases. Another headwind at C-stores has been the decline in SNAP sales.
One takeaway from Grom’s note is that the confluence of pressures mentioned above has collided across the salty-snack aisle, derailing the recovery investors had hoped would take shape this year.
Trump Details Iran Deal At G7: No Nukes, Conditional Sanctions Relief
Summary:
Iran will not have a nuclear weapon under the new deal.
The agreement includes strong policing and enforcement powers.
Trump: Obama’s JCPOA was a horrible deal that led toward a bomb.
Past U.S. payments to Iran were a failed bribe attempt.
Sanctions relief will only happen if Iran complies with terms.
Iran gets no money or relief just for signing the deal.
A deal has been electronically signed by Iran’s Ghalibaf, according to US officials cited by CNBC
Opening the strait will take time due to mines, and to expect an increase in traffic in 1-2 weeks
Details to be released in 24-48 hours
Trump: Ships starting to move through strait or Hormuz
Vice President JD Vance Begins Optics Roadshow to Boost Investor Confidence On Deal
Iran Offers 60-Day Toll-Free Hormuz Transit As 100s Of Ships Await Reopening
Deal Done
CNBC is reporting that a deal between the US and Iran has been electronically signed by Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. According to an unnamed US official, the US-Iran MOU provides for the ‘immediate’ reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, however – while President Trump said earlier that ships were beginning to move, the US official then said that reopening the strait would ‘take time’ due to mines, and that we can expect an increase in strait traffic over the next 1-2 weeks.
Trump addressed reporters and allies at the G7 summit in France on Monday, just hours after a major interim agreement with Iran that includes a 60-day ceasefire, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and strict limits on Tehran’s nuclear program. Speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, he repeatedly underscored that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon was the central achievement of the deal.
“The main thing is that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “They fully agreed to that with strong policing powers.”
🚨 PRESIDENT TRUMP JUST NOW: “The main thing is that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon!”
“They fully agreed to that with strong POLICING powers and they won’t have a nuclear weapon, which is what it was all about because they probably would have used it if they had it.”
He then compared it to the Obama-era JCPOA, calling the earlier agreement “a horrible deal for the United States” that had put Iran on “a road to a nuclear weapon” while sending billions of dollars to Tehran. Trump was also sharply critical of past U.S. cash payments to Iran, describing the $1.7 billion withdrawal from banks plus tens of billions in additional spending as a failed attempt to “bribe them to make a deal that didn’t work.”
🚨 BOOM! President Trump is now publicly OBLITERATING Barack Hussein Obama trying to “BRIBE” Iran with CASH to no success
“$1.7 billion was taken out of the banks and given to Iran and on top of that tens of billions of dollars was spent. So they tried to bribe them to make a… pic.twitter.com/uzp1r070kg
On the current arrangement, Trump stressed that any sanctions relief would be strictly behavioral and tied to compliance rather than granted simply for signing. He noted improved relations with Iran’s current leadership and reported that the Strait of Hormuz is already partially open, with mines being cleared and commercial shipping set to resume fully by Friday. Markets reacted immediately, with stocks surging and oil prices posting their biggest drop in some time.
🚨 JUST IN: Overseas, President Trump says he’s GETTING ALONG WITH IRAN, the market is SURGING and oil prices are DROPPING
47 just made massive history!
“The Strait is already partially open, as you know they’re doing a little hunting for a couple of mines that they’ve already… pic.twitter.com/UAHoCs1JBn
Trump also called for an end to fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, saying the long-running conflict “should NOT be tough” to address and that “we have to have a little talk with them.” Less than 24 hours after the Iran developments, he revealed he had already spoken with both President Zelensky and President Putin, describing the conversations as “very good” and expressing optimism that progress could be made to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine, where he noted roughly 25,000 people are dying each month.
🚨 HOLY CRAP! President Trump not even 24 HOURS after ending the Iran war just spoke with Putin and Zelensky to try and end the UKRAINE war
This man is going all-out for peace!
“Very good conversation yesterday with President Zelensky and President Putin. And I see maybe we can… pic.twitter.com/XDrhgQgyuT
Details of the MOU will be released over the next 24-48 hours, though one US official said that the MOU contains ‘possible’ $300 billion in reconstruction funding.
Ghalibaf notably came into public view for the first time in weeks in April to lead the Iranian delegation in talks in Islamabad with US Vice President DJ Vance – marking the highest-level contact between the two foes since before the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Trump
President Trump on Monday claimed on Truth Social that commercial ships loaded with oil are transiting the Strait of Hormuz followinmg an announced deal to end hostilities with Iran.
“Ships are starting to move, many loaded up with Oil, out of the Strait of Hormuz,” he wrote. “They are going along the Southern ‘Highway,’ which is totally safe, secure, and pristine. There are other areas of travel, also!!!”
Sunday evening Trump announced that the US and Iran had reached a tentative deal to end the war which was started by the Trump adminisgration and Israel on Feb. 28.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it had agreed to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) – according to state-run outelt IRNA.
VP Vance
Not even 24 hours after President Trump declared a peace deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and just 30 minutes before New York futures opened Sunday evening, the administration already had Vice President JD Vance beginning a media roadshow to calm investor nerves and boost confidence.
Vance began the Monday roadshow on CNBC, providing more details on the U.S.-Iran deal, as uncertainty is the market’s worst fear.
Vance said the U.S.-Iran deal is moving ahead despite what he called MSM “misreporting.”
“The agreement is fundamentally built around a two-step verification process,” Vance told the outlet, adding that Israel will have a seat at the table. Vance also stated that all Iranian government factions are represented in the talks, with several Iranian representatives expected at Friday’s signing ceremony.
On the Hormuz maritime chokepoint, Vance said the strait is already seeing increased traffic and is expected to remain open toll-free over the long term, not just temporarily. He added that Iran would need resources to rebuild, but those resources would not be available without a nuclear deal.
Vice President JD Vance on Monday said after the U.S. and Iran struck a preliminary deal that there are “a lot” of details that remain to be ironed out, but he expressed confidence that America has “all the cards” in subsequent talks.
The agreement reached Sunday would extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire for 60 days and set up a framework for future negotiations about Tehran’s nuclear program and other key issues.
The text of the preliminary deal has yet to be released. Vance, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday morning, said the deal’s two major prongs are reopening the Strait of Hormuz and clinching a long-term commitment that Iran will never develop a nuclear weapon.
He indicated that if Iran abides by the deal’s commitments, it will be rewarded with loosened economic sanctions or other barriers, allowing Tehran “to be reinvited into the world economy.”
Vance is also expected to join CBS Mornings to discuss the U.S.-Iran peace deal. It is likely that Fox Business and other outlets will follow, as the administration must repair any political damage from four months of war with Iran, which created uncertainty on Wall Street and sent the national average for gasoline prices above $4 per gallon for 2.5 months.
VIEWER ALERT: @VP Vance joins @CBSMornings 🌞 just after 8am ET to discuss the emerging U.S.-Iran deal.
Iran Offers 60-Day Toll-Free Hormuz Transit As 100s Of Ships Await Reopening
The U.S. and Iran reached an interim agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday evening, just 30 minutes before New York futures opened, with officials from both countries set to meet in Switzerland on Friday to formally sign the peace deal.
According to Iranian outlet Fars, the U.S.-Iran deal reportedly includes a 60-day toll-free window for vessels. After that period, if a more permanent deal is agreed upon, Tehran may seek to monetize the Hormuz chokepoint by charging commercial vessels for “services” tied to safety, navigation, environmental protection, and insurance.
Traffic on the Strait remains light on Monday morning, with hundreds of tankers waiting for the Hormuz waterway to officially reopen by the end of the week. But LNG tanker Disha did not wait for the formal opening and made a dash to exit the strait early Monday.
There are nearly 300 loaded vessels idling in the Persian Gulf, while a similar number of empty ships are waiting in the Gulf of Oman to return to export terminals. Another 250 ballast vessels inside the Gulf are ready to pick up cargoes if outbound flows resume.
The reopening could release millions of barrels of trapped oil and restart LNG flows, but normalization of energy flows back to pre-war levels could take many months, if not quarters, and for Qatar’s sake, years.
“From the bridge and the engine room where we’re sitting, right now it looks very different to what the headlines may say,” said Angad Banga, CEO of maritime conglomerate The Caravel Group, which owns Fleet Management Limited, one of the world’s largest ship management companies.
Banga told Bloomberg that it has several crews trapped in the Persian Gulf area, adding, “We’ve seen positive signals before, and I think ultimately what matters is what holds.”
Anoop Singh, global head of shipping research at Oil Brokerage Ltd, told the outlet, “Shipowners are on a risk spectrum — the Japanese, Koreans and Chinese are less open to high risk, while the Greeks have a different appetite — so we may see some people gearing up.”
Singh noted, “But by and large the rest of the market is still seeking more details and assurance before proceeding.”
Beyond the shipping industry, on Wall Street, UBS economist Arend Kapteyn told clients earlier this morning that “the test will be how quickly and to what extent the Strait of Hormuz reopens. Early indications suggest this may depend on Iran clearing naval mines over an initial 30-day period. But taken at face value, the news should be supportive for risk assets, pushing yields, oil and the US dollar lower, while equities move higher.”
Latest Hormuz trends via Kepler Cheuvreux shipping analyst Axel Styrman:
Daily arrivals at the Strait of Hormuz in 2026
Global trade & capacity trapped/waiting as of 22 May
Daily arrivals, Strait of Hormuz, # of ships per segment
Crude Exports and destination via the Strait of Hormuz
LNG Exports and destination via the Strait of Hormuz
LPG exports and destination via the Strait of Hormuz
