Issue No. 15 | July 14, 2026 Intelligence for F&I agents, administrators, and dealership finance professionals. Recommended reading before the desk: The $39 Billion Home Warranty Opportunity: What DTC Marketers Need to Know. The aging-asset and repair-cost dynamics in that piece are the same forces driving VSC economics on your lot. THE VEHICLE MARKET NUMBER: 12.8 years […]
About: Kane Barker
Recent Posts by Kane Barker
Issue No. 15 | July 14, 2026 Intelligence for direct marketers in insurance, home services, warranty, and protection. This Week: The Savings Gap Is Your Targeting Signal THE NUMBER: 35% Roughly 35% of U.S. homeowners have less than $1,000 saved for home repairs, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Average annual home […]
Issue No. 15 | July 14, 2026 For warranty administrators who manage loss ratios, reinsurance, and contract performance. This Week: Repair Inflation vs. Your Reserve Assumptions THE CURVE: 49% BLS CPI data shows HVAC and refrigeration repair costs up approximately 49% since 2020, with appliance repair costs up roughly 33% over the same period, both […]
Issue No. 14 | July 7, 2026 Intelligence for F&I agents, administrators, and dealership finance professionals. THE VEHICLE MARKET NUMBER: 7.52% Federal Reserve G.19 data puts the average new car 60-month loan rate at 7.52% as of February 2026, meaningfully above the floor that conditioned both consumers and F&I desks through 2020-2022. At current rates, […]
Issue No. 14 | July 7, 2026 For warranty administrators who manage loss ratios, reinsurance, and contract performance. This Week: Cohort-Level Cancel Risk THE CURVE: 7.52% Federal Reserve G.19 data shows the average new car 60-month loan rate at 7.52% as of February 2026, structurally higher than during the 2019-2021 period when many cancellation curve […]
Issue No. 14 | July 7, 2026 Intelligence for direct marketers in insurance, home services, warranty, and protection. This Week: Cohort-Level Cancel Risk THE NUMBER: 7.52% 7.52% as of February 2026. In today’s financing environment, a $50-per-month swing in a customer’s total payment obligation can have different cancellation implications than it did when auto loan […]
Categories: Home Warranties, Market Intelligence
Tags: VSC & Home Warranty Marketers, Warranty Administrators
Posted by: Kane Barker
Reflecting the most recent U.S. Census Bureau and HUD release (May 2026) | Published June 2026 The spring selling season failed to deliver. May 2026 new home sales came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 580,000 — down 7.3% from April’s revised 626,000 and 6.8% below the May 2025 pace of 622,000. That […]
Issue No. 13 | June 30, 2026 Intelligence for F&I agents, administrators, and dealership finance professionals. Recommended reading before the desk: What the War in Iran Means for DTC and Dealership Marketers. The May CPI confirmation and June FOMC decision make the inflation timeline from that earlier analysis concrete for F&I. THE VEHICLE MARKET NUMBER: +44% BLS […]
Issue No. 13 | June 30, 2026 Intelligence for direct marketers in insurance, home services, warranty, and protection. This Week: Inflation Confirmed THE NUMBER: 4.2% BLS CPI for May 2026 came in at 4.2% year over year, the highest reading since April 2023, with energy up 23.5% over the same period. The Federal Reserve held […]
Issue No. 13 | June 30, 2026 For warranty administrators who manage loss ratios, reinsurance, and contract performance. This Week: The Persistent Inflation Confirmation THE CURVE: +43.6% / +9.02% BLS motor vehicle repair CPI is up 43.6% since January 2019. In 2025 alone it rose 9.02%. Those are not projections. They are the cost environment […]
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