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Where is inflation hurting Americans the most? Try the areas around Tampa Bay, Miami, San Diego and Denver.
People living in these fast-growing metro regions face the highest inflation in the country, government data show, driven by rising rents and expensive home prices.
Big cities in Florida are particular hot spots.
The Sunshine State’s warm weather and low taxes are drawing lots of people from around the country, forcing up rents and home prices.
In Miami, the cost of shelter has jumped as much as 14% in the past year, according to the consumer price index. Tampa has also shown a similarly sharp increase.
The cost of food and other staples are also higher because of how crowded these areas have become.
As a result, the rate of inflation in the Tampa Bay region was the highest in the country. Prices rose an estimated 7.3% from June 2022 to June 2023, well above the 3% rate for the nation as a whole.
Miami was not far behind with a 6.9% inflation rate.
The cost of food is another inflation driver in some locales. Residents in and around San Diego, for example, have experienced some of the biggest increases in grocery prices. Ditto for Denver.
The far West as a whole generally suffers from higher inflation. Other hotspots include Phoenix and Seattle.
On the flip side are the metro areas of Minneapolis, Houston, Hawaii and Alaska. These states have relatively low inflation, mainly because shelter costs have not risen as much.
Inflation might even be falling in Alaska due to cheap energy prices, based on consumer price index data from the U.S. Labor Department. Alaska typically has lower energy prices than the rest of the country since it is a major supplier.
Keep in mind that the regional inflation rates recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are prone to exaggerate the differences in prices between major metro areas due to smaller sample sizes and less frequent data collection.
The cost of shelter regionally, for example, is only collected every six months instead of each month. It also takes time for changes in rents and housing to show up. Lately prices have either fallen or leveled off.
That’s a huge factor in price differentials since housing is by far the largest component of the CPI.
