TAMPA, Fla. — Still feeling the squeeze to your wallet? You're not alone — here in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area, just about everything is more expensive compared to last year.
Just how much more expensive? From May 2022 to May 2023, prices in the metro shot up 7.3% — that's well above the 4% national price increase, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This organization is responsible for releasing the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which typically is released every other month.
Not only are prices up compared to last year, but even over the last few months, things are more expensive. Between March and May 2023, the CPI rose 1.7%. Additionally, energy and food prices increased even more, up 3.1% and 0.7%, respectively.
Year-over-year, the food index rose up 7.5%; however, the energy index compared to last year fell 9.7%. The energy prices were heavily impacted by the decrease in gasoline, which fell 21.5%. That's in contrast to electricity prices, which rose 10.7% over the past year.
The CPI is based on the following categories:
- Food
- Clothing
- Shelter
- Fuels
- Transportation fares
- Charges for doctors' and dentists' services
- Drugs
- Other goods and services bought for day-to-day living
Once all of those individual indices are compiled and averaged out, that's where we get the full CPI number — in this case, 7.3%.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says it includes Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties as part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area.
10 Tampa Bay recently shared information from a study that showed renters in Tampa need to make more than $80,000 a year just to afford the average rent without being significantly rent burdened. That study showed the average rent in Tampa was $2,118.75.