Housing costs keep Utah CPI on the rise

Prices in Utah inched up another 0.2 percent from June to July, according to the Zions Bank Wasatch Front Consumer Price Index (CPI). An increase in housing prices more than offset a fall in transportation costs. Over the past 12 months, prices have increased in Utah by 2.1 percent on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. By comparison, prices across the U.S. have increased at a rate of 2.0 percent year-over-year, with an increase of less than 0.1 percent from June to July, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Housing costs, which represent the largest proportion of consumer spending at approximately 35 percent, increased 0.5 percent in July, driven by a 3 percent increase in hotel rates. This marks the fourth straight month hotel rates have increased in Utah. Increasing room rates were likely due to several large conferences such as USANA Health Sciences’ 2013 Annual Convention, MonaVie’s 2013 Annual Convention, and Salt Lake’s annual Comic Con. Over 20,000 people were expected to attend these three events, bringing important revenue to the state’s multi-billion-dollar tourism industry.  The Enterprise