Do you live in a high inflation area?

Inflation in the United States reached a 40-year high last year, but it’s slowing down due to factors such as the Federal Reserve rate hikes. The yearly inflation rate was 3.7 percent in August 2023.

This relatively high inflation is driven by a variety of factors, such as the war in Ukraine and labor shortages. The government may continue its interest rate hikes in the hope of taming inflation further.

Inflation rates are different throughout the U.S. To take a look at where inflation is the highest and lowest, WalletHub, a personal finance website, compared 23 major Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

The top 10 areas are:

1. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach – Florida
2. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood – Colorado
3. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell – Georgia
4. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue – Washington
5. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn – Michigan
6. New York-Newark-Jersey City – New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania
7. Anchorage – Alaska
8. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington – Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Delaware-Maryland
9. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land – Texas
10. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario – California

It’s surprising that the Seattle area, where I live, is fourth on the list and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward is 19^th. San Francisco throughout the years been one of the most expensive places to live in the U.S.

Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is 21^st while Washington-Arlington-Alexandria is 23rd.

However, higher inflation and cost of living rates are different.

Here’s a list of the most expensive cities to live in the U.S., from Kiplinger earlier this year:

1. Manhattan, New York
2. Honolulu, Hawaii
3. San Francisco, California
4. Brooklyn, New York
5. Washington, D.C.
6. Orange County, California
7. Los Angeles, California
8. Seattle, Washington
9. Boston, Massachusetts
10. Oakland, California

What’s in store for inflation in coming months? Will the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates lead to a recession in its attempts to cool the economy?

Those are hard tea leaves to read, said Curtis R. Taylor, professor of economics at Duke University, one of the economists WalletHub quoted in its inflation report.

“Financial markets are a better predictor of future economic activity than inflation is,” Taylor said. “So far this year, the stock market has performed pretty well, which suggests that a recession is not too likely and perhaps that inflation will continue to subside as well.”