South Florida price rises slowing, but still outpace nation

South Florida’s cost of living as measured by the Consumer Price Index is still rising faster than in the nation’s urban areas as a whole, but that pace continues to decline from the soaring inflation of recent years, new federal data reveal.

While urban inflation across the nation was 3.4% in April, South Florida inflation grew faster, a 4.5% annual pace, data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics show.

The good news here is that even at a 4.5% increase, the annual price increase rate in South Florida is the lowest since August 2021, when inflation annually grew 4.2%. During the inflationary spiral after that, the annual increase grew steadily to 10.2% before starting to taper off.

The region covered by the data is all of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, and the price changes can vary widely among those areas. The next update on the federal figures is due on July 11.

The April annual increase for South Florida followed a 4.9% increase in February, 5.7% in December, 7.4% in October and 7.8% last August as declines in the rate of price increases followed one another steadily. Prices in the area rose 1% from February to April.

Victoria Lee, regional commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said that recent price increases are largely attributable to the rapid rises in costs of housing and gasoline.

Housing costs in South Florida rose 5.3% in the past year, faster than the general pace of inflation. Included in that figure were rapid rises in rent, which averaged 7.2% for the year. Nationally, shelter costs rose even faster, 5.5%.

The overall rise in food costs was a modest 0.8% for the year in the region compared with a 2.2% increase for urban areas across the nation as a whole.

Restaurant food in South Florida has been rising, up 1.5% from February, while the costs of food at home actually were down 0.5% in the same period.

Dining costs at home were down 0.6% for the 12 months here, while they rose 1.1% nationally. Dining out costs nationally rose 4.1% for the year.

Apparel costs, on the other hand, soared in South Florida, up 9.2% for the year while nationally the increase was only 1.3%.

Medical cost increases were relatively modest, up 1% for the year in South Florida and up 2.7% nationally.

If you were hunting for falling prices in the past year, you might have bought a car. Prices on new cars in South Florida fell 1% over 12 months, and used car prices dropped a substantial 8.1%.