Warning! Your browser is extremely outdated and not web standards compliant.
Your browsing experience would greatly improve by upgrading to a modern browser.

Inflation in Colorado – July 2024 Update

While National Inflation Eases, Price Growth in Metro Denver Persists

Prices in the Denver metro area rose by 0.62% over the months of June and July. Compared to the average national price growth of 0.15% over this same time, metro Denver’s rate of growth was four times higher. Since July of 2023, national inflation grew by 2.9% to metro Denver’s 1.9%. Despite annual growth being below the national level, metro Denver's price level has grown by 1.2% since March of this year compared to a national average of just 0.7%. Increasing costs of medical care (1.3%), transportation (1%), food (0.7%), and housing (0.4%) all contributed to the elevated rate of price growth experienced in metro Denver over June and July of this year. Prices fell in the education and communications sector by 0.1%. Of the 23 metropolitan area CPI series tracked by BLS, Denver’s total price growth since the end of 2020 ranks 11th.
  • Price growth in metro Denver over June and July was four times higher than the national average. Prices grew 0.62% in metro Denver compared to just 0.15% nationally.
  • National price growth fell to 2.9% between July 2024 and the previous year marking the lowest 12-month rate since March of 2021.
  • Prices in the metro Denver area have grown by 20% since July of 2020.
  • In June and July, the average Colorado household spent $2,648 more due to inflation than it spent in the same period in 2020—an average of $1,324 per month. The average Colorado household has spent $34,194 more since 2020 because of higher inflation.[i]
Because inflation is cooling as estimated, the Federal Reserve System is poised to consider a rate cut in September. 

 

Inflation in metro Denver over the last 12 months was 1.9%—1 percentage point below the national average (BLS CPI Survey)[ii]

  • Of the 23 urban consumer price indices tracked by the BLS, Denver–Aurora–Lakewood's ranks 11th in total growth since the end of 2020.
  • Average annual inflation between 2010 and 2020 was 2.51%. Since July 2023, two of the prices shown on page 4 have grown by more than that. 11 have grown by less.
  • The two prices that grew the fastest over the last 12 months were those of services and food, which grew by 3% and 2.6% respectively.

 

Price Changes in Metro Denver over the Previous Year

[i] Impacts on household spending are generated by distributing the consumer expenditure estimates from https://www.bls.gov/regions/mountain-plains/news-release/consumerexpenditures_denver.htm across individual months, weighting them according to their corresponding CPI levels, and adjusting them according to the latter’s growth history.

[ii] https://www.bls.gov/cpi/

Jobs & Our Economy
Colorado Jobs and Labor Force Update – August 2024 Update

Colorado's total employment increased by 7,400 in August. Private-sector employment grew by 7,700 while government employment decreased by 300, the first decline in 13 months.

September 20, 2024 Jimena Sanchez
Jobs & Our Economy
Weighing Minimum Wage Increases Across Boulder County

By 2030, for every one person estimated to be drawn out of poverty from new minimum wage policies in Colorado, between 4 and 12 people would lose a job.

September 18, 2024 Chris Brown
Jobs & Our Economy
Employment Update Preliminary QCEW Benchmark

This report summarizes the revisions to the CES employment levels for the U.S. and the four states where the Common Sense Institute operates.

August 21, 2024 Zachary Milne
Jobs & Our Economy
Colorado Jobs and Labor Force Update – July 2024 Update

Employers in Colorado added 4,800 jobs in July after adding only 1,500 in the prior month.

August 16, 2024 Cole AndersonErik Gamm