These 10 Items Got Hit the Hardest by Inflation in 2024
Category: News & Politics
Via: robert-in-ohio • one week ago • 22 commentsBy: Adam Hardy • 1h • 3 min read Markets today INX ▼-0.24% DJI ▲ +0.01% COMP ▼-0.43%
We heard a lot about inflation in the campaigning leading to the election of President Trump - pro and con. Experts seem to think that while things have improved in some areas that other critical expense to the American people were hit hard by inflation in 2024 and the end is not clearly in sight just yet.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
As the year closes out, inflation is refusing to go down without a fight.
The Labor Department released its last inflation report in 2024 on Wednesday, showing that prices rose 2.7% for the year ending in November. (December’s report comes out mid-January.)
While the numbers were in-line with expectations, this marks the second month in a row where prices ticked up on a yearly basis, meaning inflation is slowly heading in the opposite direction from the Federal Reserve’s preferred rate of 2%.
Americans have gotten some relief this year, with prices falling for fuel, used vehicles and tech gadgets. But there are several major expenses related to housing, health care and auto maintenance, where prices spiked year-over-year and, in some cases, show no signs of slowing down.
Where prices rose the most in 2024
Here are the individual items that saw the biggest annual price increases:
- Eggs : 37.5%
- Frozen drinks and juices : 17.2%
- Condiments : 16.1%
- Auto insurance: 12.7%
- CDs, DVDs and similar media : 12.1%
- Pet services: 12.1%
- College texts books : 11.6%
- School supplies: 10.6%
- Postage: 10.6%
- Nursing home care: 9.9%
Zooming out, expenses for some broad categories of goods and services have also far outpaced the overall inflation rate, including:
Housing
Housing costs are one of the most important factors of the overall inflation rate. Rent prices jumped 4.8% this year. Other related expenses jumped, too. The cost of lawn care services increased 6.3%, and utility bills grew 5.7%.
Health care
By several measures, the cost of health care crept higher in 2024.
Health insurance costs, for instance, rose 5.9%, while hospital care and general medical care increased 4.3% and 3.7% respectively.
Vehicle upkeep
Both new and used cars have thankfully dropped in price lately after meteoric gains in recent years. The costs associated with keeping your car on the road, however, aren’t falling in tandem.
Auto insurance prices are up 12.7%, and the cost of repairs has jumped 7.8%. Routine maintenance services are also 4.4% more expensive.
Pet care
It costs a lot more these days to keep your pet happy and healthy.
General pet services like grooming and boarding spiked 12.1% in price, while vet care costs rose 7%. The price of pet supplies slightly outpaced inflation, too, at 2.8%.
Breakfast items
Overall, grocery prices are leveling out, with prices rising slightly slower than overall inflation, at 2.4%. Some common breakfast items unfortunately didn’t get the memo.
Most notably, eggs are 37.5% more expensive this year. Breakfast drinks like instant coffee and juices are also pricier, respectively rising 4.6% and 3.1%.
What about interest rates?
Next week, Fed officials are gathering in Washington, D.C. for their final meeting in 2024. Even though inflation is stickier than expected, experts are still predicting the Fed will lower interest rates by 0.25 percentage points.
“We think the Fed will deliver a cut at next week’s December meeting, with market expectations giving them ‘permission’ to do so,” Elyse Ausenbaugh, head of investment strategy at J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, said in emailed commentary.
Though with inflation not fully in the rearview mirror, Ausenbaugh said J.P. Morgan expects the Fed to hold rates steady at the January meeting.
The topic of article is inflation in 2024 - please discuss that subject
Please be civil to one another whether agreeing or disagreeing with points made
Please use your words - post no memes
We have been told that inflation is behind us as the presidential campaigns unwound, but sadly that is not the truth
If you have been to the grocery store lately or paid your bills in other areas you know that inflation is alive and well as we enter 2025 and beyond
You feel that inflation is the only cause for the price increase of your groceries?
Ozz
Of course not that would be totally naive
Prices are affected by many factors, but an important point to consider is that many voters blamed the higher costs of their living expenses on inflation and not those other factors.
Okay then. What percentage of the price increase do you feel is caused only by inflation?
Uninformed people blaming one thing or another, does not equate to being accurate.
Also, your original comment that I responded to implied that inflation was the only reason prices are higher, and IMPLIES that the current Biden administration was the cause of the high inflation.
Both of which are inaccurate and common pieces of misinformation by the right wing.
I can where you got that implication from and I apologize that was not my intent and I failed to accurately state it.
DO you not agree that high prices plague the American people in many areas and that those high prices are caused by various factors/
I am not an economist and do not play one on NT so I cannot give precise cause and effect for high prices
It is like pornography I know high prices when I see them
And when something is bigger than it was before (the prices) it is inflated
Thank you.
Absolutely.
Ditto.
Knowing prices are high is one thing. Playing the blame game with no facts to back it up is another.
Now you are playing with semantics. You use the word "inflated" to imply that "inflation" is responsible, completely ignoring other causes.
From the article
Housing
Housing costs are one of the most important factors of the overall inflation rate. Rent prices jumped 4.8% this year. Other related expenses jumped, too. The cost of lawn care services increased 6.3%, and utility bills grew 5.7%.
Health care
By several measures, the cost of health care crept higher in 2024.
Health insurance costs, for instance, rose 5.9%, while hospital care and general medical care increased 4.3% and 3.7% respectively.
These are important issues to all but especially to seniors, retired and fixed incomes
If you are in the market for a house, you might think of selling your children into indentured servitude. Or yourself. Housing prices are ridiculously high, especially when compared against average income.
The cost of housing (and other items) is controlled by what people are willing to pay otherwise nothing would ever sell and e would have total stagnation
The housing market is cyclical and it will cycle back to more affordable (in relation to incomes) housing as it has many time sin the past.
I know how markets work.
Around where I live, the local market is skewed by external forces. For example, the town in which I live has a median household income of about $50,000. The median sales price for a house in 2022 (and it has risen since then) was almost $300,000. As you can see from these numbers, houses are not selling to the full-time residents of the town, because locals just cannot afford them. Rather, they are going to people, Corporations, LLCs and the like, that are not in residence. These in fact take up the lions share of the "available" housing. Most of the rest of the housing locally is sub-standard and would not qualify for a mortgage but is for sale as-is for cash. Even most of those have gone.
Over the past 5 years, houses, rentals, and just plain land has gone from prohibitively expensive to out-of-reach for the majority of the people who call my town home.
The Biden response: "Shut up and sit down, I fixed the economy and it is doing great". At least that is the message from his latest and last victory tour.
Well there have been significant improvements since the pandemic but inflation is still the key issue with the middle class in the U.S.
Monthly inflation rate:
The current inflation rate is 2.7%. This is normal. Inflation is not the problem right now. Rather, the problem is the higher prices resulting from prior inflation (i.e. cumulative inflation). How is this going to change? What could Trump possibly do to lower the CPI to meet the expectations of his believers?
T G
I agree with the points you make and have no real idea what Trump or anyone else is going to do to actually see lower prices to the consumer for the products and services critical to their lives - but that is the number one issue according to the majority of voters and citizens in the country.
I am sure MAGA thinks that fingers will be snapped and a solution will appear but it simply won't happen, but in large part those hgiher prices got him elected.
Trump claims he won on campaigning on bringing groceries down, but now he's saying he might not be able to do so?
Trump on 12/25/24 Meet the Press interview:
Oh, that is okay. That is just Trump. We all know he lies, ..., don't make such a big deal out of everything. Everything is fine. Anytime Trump lies or makes a bad decision it is okay ... just forget about it.
Yeah, Trump, no shit that a PotUS has almost no means to lower the prices in a market economy.
Another little item you should learn is that imposing tariffs raises prices on domestic consumers.
Trump ran for PotUS to escape accountability for his crimes. Those who voted for Trump to help them with consumer prices have all voted against their best interests ... they are the marks on Trump's big con-job. They helped him achieve his goals at their (and the nation's) expense. Well done.
T G
Tariffs will most assuredly raise prices for consumer goods in the short run, but if applied properly, consistently and with a plan they could reshape the manufacture, marketing and sale of consumer products in such a way as to bring more jobs to the U.S. and also allow for a gradual decline in prices on domestically produced goods now purchased abroad.
But the key is that it will be a complicated process that takes time not a quick solution that so many are expecting.
While I agree in principle with the words in blue, there are myriad ways to misuse tariffs. A tariff is a tool that is best held in reserve with fair-minded negotiations based on a well conceived plan as the lead mechanism.
And given the current PotUS, I see no chance for the words in blue to go into effect.
And the word 'could' is especially important. I see it as more wishful thinking than a smart plan.
I recall reading from what appeared to be expert advice back when Trump imposed tariffs that the tariffs did very little to protect US jobs.
T G
Again good points
But people were not and are not satisfied with the state of the economy, prices, inflation and whatever else politicians told them was wring and they wanted change.
Whether that change will be good or bad remains to be seen
Buzz
Thanks - I am sure that there are "experts" that will support both the positive and the negative of tarrifs but as stated it is a delicate process that can produce good results but if mismanaged can bring additional problems to an economy.
Political equivocating at its best - something Trump says he never does
But he sure did