Whether at the grocery store, the gas station or the car dealer lot — inflation is hard to escape right now.
Consumer prices in metro Denver rose 9.1% year-over-year in March, the biggest jump in four decades. Some items have gone up much more. Used car prices are up 38.8% on average, gasoline prices up 36% and the cost of heating and powering a home up 17% over the past year.
Housing costs have become especially burdensome. Rent increases are running in the mid-teens and the typical monthly payment for someone taking out a mortgage in April in Colorado was 46.3% higher than it was in April 2020 due to rising interest rates and much higher home prices.
Unlike the inflation wave seen in the late 1970s that built up slowly, this one has snuck up on consumers in unexpected ways. We would like to hear from our readers about where price increases are hitting them hardest and how they are coping. Are you driving less, switching the foods you eat, not going out, delaying big purchases, running higher balances on credit cards or pulling money out of savings? Let us know your inflation story.
