The cost to live along the Wasatch Front took its biggest year-over-year jump in June since the statistic has been formally measured. The Zions Bank Wasatch Front Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.9 percent from May to June, bringing the rise in the past year to 5.1 percent, the largest year-over-year increase reported since Zions Bank began the index in 2011. Meanwhile, the national Consumer Price Index increased 2.9 percent in the same time period.
Eighty percent of the local year-over-year annualized inflation increase of 5.1 percent was driven by increases in the housing and transportation sectors, Zions Bank said. Transportation costs, in particular, have increased 14.4 percent in the past 12 months.
In the largest single-month jump since June 2015, transportation contributed nearly 90 percent of the month-to-month increase to the CPI. The increasing cost of rentals and annual price changes of new and used vehicles make up the majority of transportation’s increase.
Housing in Utah had its first month-to-month decrease in five months due largely to seasonal fluctuations in prices.
With an increasingly larger proportion of Utahns’ income going to housing and transportation, less is able to go elsewhere, the report shows. Utahns spent a smaller share of their income on recreation, food at home and other goods and services in June than they have in any other month since the Consumer Price Index began. In contrast, Utahns are spending less on groceries and home-cooked meals and are beginning to spend more on food away from home.
“Even though prices in Utah are increasing, many other factors still signal that Utah is doing very well and will continue to be a state with one of the strongest economies in the country,” said Scott Anderson, president and CEO of Zions Bank. “U.S. News’ Best States ranking puts Utah as being in the top three states in the country for its economy, education and fiscal stability and ranks the state third overall.”
“When prices for housing and transportation go up, like they have been here in Utah, it’s typical to see spending on more expensive and easily substitutable goods drop,” said Randy Shumway, chairman and founder at Cicero Group, a Salt Lake City market research company that does data collection and analysis for the CPI. “Instead, we are seeing that Utahns are still spending more on a luxury goods, such as eating out, than in the past. This is a sign of changing consumer habits. It is a vote of confidence in their place in the economy.”