Economic News

Year over Year Inflation is Highest in These U.S. Cities

Following a tumultuous two years that saw the United States economy crater before building back in the face of a pandemic, the biggest economic story of the past several months has been inflation. According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 8.2% between September 2021 and September 2022 on a national scale. However, in some cities around the country, the rate of inflation was even higher. Now, a new study from WalletHub highlights these greater metropolitan areas.

For their list, WalletHub compared 23 different metros across two statistics: Consumer Price Index Change from the latest month versus two months before and the CPIC change from the latest month versus one year ago. With each of these figures being fully weighted for a total of 50 points each, the site assigned scores out of 100 to each of the metros.

Topping the list was Phoenix, Arizona where year-over-year inflation was 13%. The Valley of the Sun also ended up with a score of 95.28 from WalletHub. Second place went to the Atlanta, Georgia area with a score of 91.10. While ATL’s YOY CPI increase was 11.7%, its monthly increase was the highest on the list, coming in at 1.30%. The rest of the top five included Miami, Florida (75.76 score, 10.7% yearly increase); Tampa, Florida (73.44 score, 10.5% yearly increase); and Baltimore, Maryland (69.50 score, 10.2% yearly increase).

As for metros that underpaced the national average by the greatest amount, Anchorage, Alaska came out on top. Notably, although the city’s Consumer Price Index rose by 7.60% for the year, it was actually down 4% last month. That factor helped give it the lowest WalletHub score of 13.01.

However, the metro with the smallest year-over-year inflation was San Fransisco, California. Their 33.02 score factors in a YOY inflation rate of 5.70% as well as a 0.5% month-over-month decrease. Other metros at the bottom of the list were the Washington D.C. area (41.33 score, 6.5% yearly increase); the New York City area (44.93 score, 6.2% yearly increase); and Denver, Colorado (49.55 score, 7.7% yearly increase).

The good news is that inflation on a national level has slowed down, with the September report showing a 0.4% monthly increase. However, that is still up from a flat month in July and a 0.1% rise in August. Plus, the 8.2% year-over-year average continues to be a significant hike that has undoubtedly impacted Americans — especially those in the aforementioned cities where the rate even exceeds this amount. Obviously there’s no easy solution to fighting this inflation, but hopefully some relief will come to those in these major metros and around the country soon.