Metros Where Inflation Spiked the Least and Most

The Consumer Price Index reported a 5.4% increase in prices paid for by consumers for goods and services during the 12-month period ending July 2021—in other words, inflation is “soaring,” says SmartAsset. It’s fueled by consumer spending and supply chain bottlenecks, pushing inflation to its highest level since 2008 when prices paid increased by 5.6%. SmartAsset set out to see where inflation has spiked the most across the country. At number one with a 12-month 6.7% change in Consumer Price Index was the Atlanta metro region. The site discovered that high cost of living areas saw the smallest growth in prices.

Places With the Largest Inflation Spikes
While the CPI increased 5.4% over the 12-month period ending in July, inflation rates in nine metro areas across the country exceeded that national average. In Atlanta, Georgia, a 59.3% spike in gasoline prices helped push the overall CPI up 6.7% for the 12-month period that ended in June.

Consumer prices in the Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida spiked 6.6% for the 12 months ending in July, the second-largest CPI increase of all 23 metro areas. Food prices in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater rose 4.3% during the same time period.

In California, the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro area saw consumer prices jump 6.5% during the 12-month period that ended in July. A 37.5% increase in gasoline prices pushed the overall price of energy up nearly 27% during that span. The CPI also increased by 6.5% in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metro area, where the price of used motor vehicles jumped 19.2% for the 12 months ending in July.

Meanwhile, the CPI advanced 6.2% in the Anchorage, Alaska area for the 12 months ending in June, the fifth-largest increase in the country. During that time, the price of used cars and trucks in Anchorage surged 42.1%.

Places With the Smallest Inflation Spikes
Consumer prices in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area rose only 3.2% year-over-year in June, the lowest inflation rate out of all 23 metro areas tracked by the BLS. Across the New York and Denver metro areas, prices rose 3.5% during the 12-month period that ended in July, which is tied for the second-smallest CPI increase in the U.S.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area saw prices jump 3.9% in the 12 months ending in July, while the Boston-Cambridge-Newton area had a 4.3% jump in its CPI during the same span of time, which is fifth-lowest across all 23 metro areas.

Read More