Written by Sasha Reva
Due to the huge inflation, Bay Area residents are expecting to pay $4,400 more per year for the same things that they used to buy. Besides huge inflation on gas, which now costs $6 or even more in some areas, the White House announced that it is expected to show very high inflation numbers on energy because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Major goods and services — such as food, transportation and health care are increasing in price really fast. Prices of goods and services in the San Francisco metro area are up by 5.2% already.
“Average consumers will feel the bite of this and either pull back on spending or get into debt at a time when interest rates are rising,” said the president of nonprofit Consumer Watchdog, Jamie Court. “The average household does not have another $4,400 per year to spend on the essentials of life.”
“California was already unaffordable, now it’s become even more so,” he said. “The Bay Area is the epicenter of the unaffordability crisis given how high housing prices are.”
The average spent money from households in the San Francisco metro area is about $91,700 annually in 2019-2020. The annual increase is 16.5% in the transportation category, which means that people will pay $1,830 more than in the previous year. Prices for used cars and trucks rose by almost 40%. Food prices increased 9% higher than in the past year, which means that the annual increase will be more than $1,000.
“A $15-per-hour worker would have to work nearly two months to make up for inflation at that rate, and that’s before taxes,” Court said. More people will leave California due to those skyrocketing costs.
“It will take some time, particularly as we have a pandemic hangover and savings that accumulated during the pandemic to use up,” he spoke. “It could be a perfect storm for those without much disposable savings,” he added.
Court added, “people need to be conscious of the price of things, more so than ever.” “Consumers need to comparison shop and hold off on discretionary purchases that don’t make sense.” “People should consider asking for raises to keep up with the price increases.”
Photo Cred: Planetware
