The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area has the highest inflation rate of metro areas with more than 2.5 million residents, with a 9% inflation rate for the 12 months ended in April., according to data from the Consumer Price Index. The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro had the third-highest inflation rate in the country, at 7.3% for the year ended in May.
Florida’s population grew the most of any state from July 2021 to July 2022 because of domestic migration, according to the Census Bureau’s latest estimates. During that same period, Florida also had the fastest population growth by percentage, the first time it has notched that top spot since 1957.Housing costs account for almost a third of the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, and population gains heavily influence that component.
“Shelter costs grew faster in Minneapolis and peaked a little bit earlier,” said Tyler Schipper, associate professor of economics at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. “They peaked about six months before they did on average of the rest of the country.” Helping that along has been a surge of multifamily construction, putting more apartments on the market and bringing down rents in the process.