How much your car’s worth right now (3 27 25)

Author

Anthony Hazzard
March 27, 2025

Affording a home has been getting harder and harder. But is there hope on the horizon? Find out later in this email. 

💵 Today’s Top Stories
Car

You should know what your car is worth even if you’re not planning to sell. It has become tougher to figure out with valuations changing so quickly, but Clark has some good tips. Read more.

Scam alert cash

From fake prize notifications to packages you never ordered, here are some common Amazon scams, how to avoid them and what to do if you stumble into one. Read more.

Help

It’s the stuff of nightmares. You wake up in a cold sweat thinking your investment company just went bankrupt. What about all your money? Are your investments protected? Read more.

Tools

Team Clark has tracked the best bargains on power tools for nine years. Good news: our research indicates several chances to score a deal, including one that’s weeks away. Read more.

💻️ Tech Tip From Kim Komando

Stop blabbin’: Dropbox’s AI may share your files with OpenAI and other third parties. Don’t remember signing up for that? To turn it off, log in to Dropbox, hit your Account icon, go to Settings, find the Third-Party AI tab and toggle the switch to Off. Join 575K people who get Kim’s free newsletter, The Current.

🏠️ Exactly How Much Has Home Affordability Suffered?

Home affordability continues to plague those who are looking to get into the market.

To understand why that’s a big deal, average U.S. earnings have increased just 25% in the same period – while inflation has also grown 23%.

Anthony Pompliano found the 79% increase for a home that costs $356,776, using a Zillow calculator with a 20% down payment and spending less than 30% of one’s monthly income on the mortgage.

The household income needed to afford such a home was $51,646 in January 2020 and $92,538 in January 2025. (For context, the same figure jumped from $43,367 to $51,740 from ’16 to ’21, a much slower growth rate.)

He cited Zillow to state that the typical U.S. home value is +44% since January 2019. Mortgage rates, now a few tenths below 7% on 30-year fixed deals, rose from under 3% then to over 7% in January.

He also cited the COVID-19 pandemic housing boom, when historically low interest rates, a stimulus package, remote work and other factors led to a surge in home-buying demand that reduced the inventory in the market. (Supplies and construction also soared in price at the time due to logistical snags related to COVID.)

There’s reason for cautious optimism that mortgage rates will continue to moderate somewhat. And home prices are not growing at near the rate they were at the onset of COVID-19. So perhaps affordability will now start to improve over time.

📊 Stat of the Day

🏡 +0.8%: Zillow’s projected growth in home prices for the next 12 months starting February 2025. That’s a downgrade over its initial forecast – and a subsequent one as well. That’s also despite mortgage rates moderating at least marginally in recent weeks.

💰️ Deal Alert: Today’s Top Deals
Notes
Sam's Club warehouse
Duracell
🎙️ Podcast

Scams are everywhere right now! Clark shares a list of the top scams and how to avoid them. Plus, he shares a new tool from Google that can help you fight scams on your phone. Also, after announcing store closures, many Jo-Ann’s customers are shocked that their gift cards are worthless. Clark explains why you need to use gift cards ASAP!

☎️ Need Money Help?

The Team Clark Consumer Action Center is a free helpline that can help you navigate your money questions. Call 636-492-5275. Visit clark.com/cac for more information.

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