Christopher "Mad Dog" Thomas, carries his son, Rian Gatewood-Hillestad, while shopping at Pete's Market in Chicago's Garfield Neighborhood, Aug. 15, 2019. (AP /Amr Alfiky)
Baltimore, Atlanta, and four metropolitan areas in Florida and Texas account for six of the top 10 in the U.S. for the highest inflation rates.
Black Americans are more likely than whites to report having serious financial problems related to inflation, according to a new poll.
“Inflation is impacting Black families more than many other Americans,” said Robert J. Blendon, a professor of public health at Harvard University and co-director of the NPR/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll.
Inflation can vary by region, so while the 8.3-percent overall increase in consumer prices for August is at 40-year highs, some regions in the Southeast and Southwest are seeing inflation rates that are even higher — as high as 13 percent.
“Millions of minority households across the nation are facing distinct, serious financial problems during this period, including many who are being threatened with eviction and face unsafe conditions in their neighborhoods, with few options to help,” Blendon said.
Sunbelt regions of the U.S. experienced some of the greatest influx of new residents during the covid-19 pandemic and now they have some of the worst inflation in the country, according to a new study by personal finance site WalletHub.
Costs of shelter, transportation and the availability of goods and services are some of the factors responsible for driving some of the sharpest individual increases in inflation in the last year, CNBC reported.
Inflation inequality increases during recessions, according to a Federal Reserve economic brief. Low-income households devote a higher share of their income to purchasing necessities, so low-income consumers have a much more difficult time responding to rising food costs at the grocery store.
Evidence from spending in retail outlets from 2004 to 2020 showed that Black U.S. households face higher and more volatile inflation than white, wrote Lee, Munseob for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
The WalletHub rankings are based on consumer price index data for all goods and services. However, shelter costs account for 32 percent of the overall CPI — the biggest share by far.
Six of the top 10 metropolitan areas with the highest inflation are in the Sun Belt. Many were migration hotspots earlier in the pandemic when people were moving away from the Northeast and parts of California in search of cheaper properties.
All the top-ranked urban areas in the study saw home prices rise by 15-to-30 percent in the past year as of August, according to data from online brokerage Redfin.
With the deluge of new residents, these once-cheaper property markets are no longer as affordable as they used to be.
“The great resignation has employers scrambling to find workers, particularly at low wages, while higher-wage workers have become quite choosey about who and where they work,” said Linda Loubert, an associate professor of economics at Morgan State University. “Changing demands and unreliable supplies have created havoc in what were relatively stable markets. It will take some time for equilibrium to play out against the unsettling times brought on by the pandemic.”
Wallethub evaluated 23 of the biggest U.S. metro areas based on inflation, scoring them on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 representing the highest inflation rate.
These 10 metro areas have the highest inflation and are silently stealing the most from Americans.
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 2 months before): 0.8%
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 1 year ago): 13%
Total score: 92.11
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 2 months before): 1.3%
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 1 year ago): 11.7%
Total score: 87.59
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 2 months before): 1.3%
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 1 year ago): 11.2%
Total score: 84.16
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 2 months before): 0.4%
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 1 year ago): 10.7%
Total score: 72.84
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 2 months before): 1%
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 1 year ago): 9.4%
Total score: 69.20
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 2 months before): 1.1%
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 1 year ago): 9.2%
Total score: 68.71
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 2 months before): 1.7%
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 1 year ago): 8.2%
Total score: 67.12
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 2 months before): 0.1%
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 1 year ago): 10.2%
Total score: 66.79
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 2 months before): 1.2%
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 1 year ago): 8.2%
Total score: 62.74
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 2 months before): 0.1%
Consumer Price Index Change (Latest month vs 1 year ago): 9.5%
Total score: 61.99
Photo: Christopher “Mad Dog” Thomas, carries his son, Rian Gatewood-Hillestad, while shopping at Pete’s Market in Chicago’s Garfield Neighborhood, Aug. 15, 2019. (AP /Amr Alfiky)
