COLORADO SPRINGS — With the economic fallout from COVID-19, many are finding it harder to make ends meet. At the same time, new numbers suggest the cost of living is still going up.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics just released new data comparing the consumer price index, which is essentially the price of common things we pay for all averaged together, of 2019 to that of 2020. The number has gone up.
Here in Colorado, we're all too familiar with the rising cost of living.
"It takes two incomes to live here," Colorado Springs Resident Shawnda Kramer said.
Just ask any homeowner and they'll tell you, things change quickly.
"I've owned a home in Colorado Springs here for about seven years now," Colorado Springs resident Evan Hooton said. "My home value has gone up probably about 45 percent."
Exactly one year ago, News 5 reported, for the first time, the cost of living in Colorado Springs surpassed the national average.
"I have one daughter that's of the age to buy a house, and it's like, she can't afford to buy a house," Kramer said.
Nationally, rent prices went up 2.9 Percent between august 2019 and august 2020. That number is almost assuredly higher if you looked at Colorado specifically.
In that same time, grocery prices went up by 4.6 percent, medical care up 5.3 percent and new vehicles up 0.7 percent.
Surprisingly, the price of window coverings went up 6.3 percent.
"I mean there's like a lot a factors maybe that cause it to keep going up even during a pandemic," Kramer said.
There is some good news. Gas prices went down 16.8 Percent.
But overall, the national consumer price index, considering everything that's sold, went up 1.3 percent.
"I'm not surprised, because the world didn't just stop turning," Hooton said. "Everything shut down, but everything still keeps going down the road."
