Riverside, San Diego And Los Angeles Top List For High Inflation Metros Nationwide

By Ria Roebuck Joseph | Center Square contributor, The Center Square California

February 16, 2023

(The Center Square) - Three California metropolitan areas ranked in the top ten in a Wallethub's analysis of US cities where inflation is increasing the most. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario ranked 3rd, San Diego-Carlsbad ranked 4th and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim ranked 9th.

The inflation rate last year was the highest it's ever been since the 1980’s and despite the Federal Reserves increase in interest rates to slow inflation, January had 6.4% year-over-year inflation rate exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, labor shortages and the ongoing parade of Covid-19 variants. Critics however have added excessive spending, relief funding and restrictive policies in domestic energy production, to the list of reasons for inflation rates.

Riverside however topped the national rate with an eye-opening 7.3% over the last year, and 1.3% in just the past two months, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed in a report released Feb. 14.

When it comes to Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario, food (at 9.8%) and energy (at 15.3%) pushed the Consumer Price Index increase but that was not all, healthcare expenses (at 6.2%) and rent (at 8.3%) rose as well.

The rate hikes are not unfamiliar to the Inland Empire. Riverside county had the highest inflation rate in the country just two years ago so a 3rd place ranking, though not by any means good, is still an improvement from years past.

Wallethub compared 23 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) across two key metrics: changes from latest month vs 2 months before; and changes from latest month vs 1 year ago - drawing from the Consumer Price Index Reports (CPI) which measures inflation.

The top ten MSA’s in the final analysis were:

1.Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL

2.Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL

3.Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA

4.San Diego-Carlsbad, CA

5.Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX

6.Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

7.Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ

8.Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH

9.Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

10.Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO

Conversely, Anchorage, Alaska saw the lowest inflation rates.

The focus of the work of The Center Square California is state and local-level government and economic reporting that approaches stories with a taxpayer sensibility.