Inflation report

A better than expected inflation report sent stocks soaring today. Inflation rose 7.7% over October of last year, and even though that seems high, it’s not as bad as economists thought.

Dennis Hoffman, Director of the L. William Seidman Research Institute at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

Over the last few months, the numbers in Phoenix and Arizona have not changed much overall, Hoffman said.

“But a little bit of good news instead of bad news nationally, and Wall Street obviously liked it. What drives Wall Street is often a puzzle. But they certainly like these numbers,” Hoffman said.

There has been a decline in medical costs and used car prices. But are supply chain issues a part of this?

It’s a part of how they measure this, according to Hoffman.

“It’s survey based, some of it is based upon profits of health care companies and they translate those in the costs of health care. It gets pretty murky. But yes, used car prices are down, actually down month over month. I think they’re still up year over year but not very much. So those explosive costs that we saw in used cars are rolling off,” Hoffman said.

How does Inflation Tie into Jobs and Living in the Phoenix Area?

People who are fortunate enough to own their own homes cars and do not have to commute across town that much, this inflation has been an annoyance, but not much more than that, according to Hoffman.

“For those that have to rent, commute across town, buy gas at high gasoline prices, it certainly has been tough,” Hoffman said.

“In terms of jobs, I have concerns going forward in the real estate sector. Not anywhere near like 2008 or 2009, because we are still way under bill, and I think the sector will be okay. But the turnover, the amount of sales in the MLS is just way down,” Hoffman said.