Denver, Colorado, is suffering under the fastest-growing inflation rate of any US city, new research reveals.
The rate of annual inflation ticked up by 3.2 percent last month – rising marginally from June’s 3 percent rate – the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday.
But certain cities have fared much worse than others. A study by personal finance website WalletHub ranked the top five US cities with the biggest inflation problem.
Denver’s rate of annual inflation is currently sitting at 4.7 percent – over a percentage point more than the national rate.
More concerningly, it has seen the sharpest uptick in inflation in the last two months, shooting up by 1.3 percent.
WalletHub analyzed how consumer costs impact people in different cities. It compared 23 major Metropolitan Statistical Areas
It was tied with St Louis which similarly saw its rate of inflation increase by 1.3 percent in the last two months. However St Louis has a lower annual rate of inflation, at 3.10 percent.
Researchers also placed Atlanta, Detroit and Seattle in the top five cities with the worst inflation problems.
By comparison, Anchorage, Alaska, was identified as having the ‘smallest’ inflation problem. The city has a negative inflation rate of -3.3 percent, a rate that had changed minimally in the last two months.
Washington, Boston, Chicago, and Minneapolis were also identified by researchers as having the ‘smallest’ inflation problems. These cities all had an annual inflation rate lower than 3 percent.
WalletHub analyzed how consumer costs impact people in different cities. It compared 23 major Metropolitan Statistical Areas.
Disparities in inflation between different states is often due to their individual property markets.
In Denver, for example, experts said its high housing costs were keeping inflation red-hot.
Brian Lewandowski, from Leeds Business Research, recently told CBS Colorado: ‘The housing component of DPI represents 44% of the overall basket and for the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood region, it went up 8.8% year over year versus 6.2% for the nation and 7.1% for the mountain region.
‘That does show that we have higher price inflation on housing than the nation overall.’
It comes after Florida was identified as the state with the highest inflation rate in a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics last month.
At the time, analysts blamed the red-hot rate on Florida’s housing costs.
Inflation in the US has ticked up to a 3.2 percent annual rate – rising slightly in July from June’s 3 percent annual increase
The price of used cars and airline tickets fell, while shelter and vehicle insurance rose in cost
Amanda Phalin, an economist at the University of Florida, said: ‘A lot of people are still coming to Florida because the economy is really strong, and many like the fact that we don’t have an income tax like in New York, for example.
‘And in places like Miami, we’re seeing a lot of real estate demand from non-Floridians or non-American investors — generally wealthy folks who want to have a nice home here.’
But the latest data suggests prices might finally be easing in the Sunshine State.
Tampa and Miami have both experiences the smallest change in prices in the last two months – despite their annual rates being 5.9 percent and 6.9 percent respectively.
In July, the rate of annual inflation nationally ticked upwards to 3.2 percent.
It marked the first time in 13 months that the Consumer Price Index has accelerated.
Prices rose 0.2 percent month-on-month to July, driven mainly by shelter costs, which include rent. This accounted for 90 percent of the monthly increase, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
However this modest monthly rise is the same rate as in June, which could possibly deter the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates again in September.
The monthly increase was also in line with projections, while the annual rate was slightly below the 3.3 percent forecast.