Prices are up in all U.S. metro areas, but some much more than others

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Inflation in the United States is down significantly from its recent highs, falling from an annual rate of 9.1% in June 2022 to 2.5% in August 2024. But current prices remain elevated and, absent a recession , are likely to stay that way.

Riverside and San Bernardino have been more affected by inflation than Los Angeles.

On average, consumer prices in August 2024 were 22.0% above where they were in January 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic scrambled the U.S. economy and much of the rest of American life.

Today, 74% of Americans say they are very concerned about the price of food and consumer goods, while 69% say the same about housing costs, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

Of course, people don’t live on national averages. They live in particular places and buy particular things, and their experiences of inflation depend greatly on those particulars. The cost of apartments in Atlanta, bananas in Boston and sportswear in Seattle all factor into the national average inflation rate but can – and do – vary considerably from it: Since early 2020, for example, consumer prices are up nearly 30% in the Tampa -St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area, 24.0% in San Diego-Carlsbad and “only” 16.6% in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area (although prices started out considerably higher in the Bay Area than in the other metro areas studied).

Of the meters we analyzed, the Bay Area has seen the largest increase in electricity prices (up by nearly two-thirds since the pre-pandemic days of early 2020) but the smallest increase in rent of primary residences (8.9%, though again starting from a relatively high base).

Looking to drown your budgeting sorrows? Alcoholic beverages are 35.0% more expensive in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area today than in February 2020, but 7.3% less expensive in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach.