(KTLA) – Residents in a number of cities are still seeing the cost of consumer goods and services rise faster than the rest of the nation, even as the U.S. inflation rate levels off, according to a new study from WalletHub.
The personal finance website compared changes in the Consumer Price Index in 23 major metropolitan areas year over year, and over three recent months, and then created a score based on those figures.
Of the 23 cities ranked, WalletHub found that Honolulu and Miami have seen the steepest increases in consumer prices, including groceries, rent, and automobiles, while Detroit and Anchorage have seen prices cool the most.
The U.S. inflation rate hit a 40-year high after the COVID-19 pandemic but has recently settled at 3.5% – still above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
Cities With the Biggest Inflation Problems
| Overall Rank | Metro Area | Total Score | Consumer Price Index Change(Latest month vs 2 months before) | Consumer Price Index Change(Latest month vs 1 year ago) |
| 1 | Urban Honolulu, HI | 92.19 | 1.50% | 4.80% |
| 2 | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 90.63 | 1.40% | 4.90% |
| 3 | Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 81.25 | 1.40% | 4.30% |
| 4 | St. Louis, MO-IL | 76.56 | 1.60% | 3.60% |
| 5 | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 75.00 | 0.90% | 4.90% |
| 5 | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 75.00 | 1.20% | 4.30% |
| 7 | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 73.44 | 1.60% | 3.40% |
| 8 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 70.31 | 1.20% | 4.00% |
| 9 | Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 68.75 | 1.50% | 3.30% |
| 10 | Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | 64.06 | 1.70% | 2.60% |
| 11 | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 62.50 | 1.30% | 3.30% |
| 12 | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 56.25 | 0.90% | 3.70% |
| 12 | Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | 56.25 | 1.00% | 3.50% |
| 14 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 54.69 | 1.00% | 3.40% |
| 14 | San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA | 54.69 | 1.50% | 2.40% |
| 16 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI | 53.13 | 1.10% | 3.10% |
| 17 | San Diego-Carlsbad, CA | 51.56 | 0.80% | 3.60% |
| 18 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | 42.19 | 0.60% | 3.40% |
| 19 | Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO | 35.94 | 0.70% | 2.80% |
| 20 | Minneapolis-St.Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 31.25 | 0.60% | 2.70% |
“Residual supply chain troubles contribute to this, although the largest factor is the strong economy with pressure on wages and opportunities for businesses to raise prices to increase profits,” said Gerald Friedman, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. “Supply-side policies can help, including immigration reform to address labor supply problems. The Inflation Reduction Act was a good first step in addressing corporate greed.”
U.S. producer prices rose in March from a year earlier at the fastest pace in nearly a year, but the gain was less than economists expected. And wholesale inflation eased on a month to month basis.
The Labor Department said Thursday that its producer price index — which measures inflationary pressure before it reaches consumers — rose 2.1% last month from March 2023 , biggest year-over-year jump since April 2023. But economists had forecast a 2.2% increase, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
