In 2003-2004, I could pull into any fast food place and get a meal for $3. For breakfast, it was around 2.50. Today the fast food menu is double that. Taking a date to a decent restaurant meant a bill of about 30-50 dollars. The other night I received a call from a woman to meet her up at the New Leaf Restaurant in Fort Tyron park. I got there and she was just paying for the bill, she was hanging out with friends. The bill total was $340. That is simply obnoxius.
I had an idea of trying to figure out what the true inflation rate is by figuring out some goods that I'd actually buy and tracking that. Like, every week: 10 gallons of gas 1 gallon of milk 1 loaf of bread 1.2 of 1% of the price of a new computer 25% of the average monthly rent or home payment etc., etc. Then I thought that everytime I think of something cool and innovative, someone else already thought of it and is already doing that. So do you all know of someone who is doing that on the internet? SM
A huge inflationary surprise for a lot of people this year and next will be when their ARMs readjust. But they will just refinance... Surprise! Too late! Their payments are going to rise by a substantial sum even if they try and refinance now, or have refinanced in the last 3 weeks or so.
On the flip side, rents are through the roof. In Chicago they've been going up 5-10% a year for the past decade.....
Yep. There is no doubt that rents are rising. There is a huge squeeze taking place now. Everything that is inflexible - gasoline, food, health insurance, utilities, property taxes, property insurance, rent/mortgage payments - all have gone up dramatically since 2003. You can't even get property insurance in many parts of Florida or hurricane risk area of the gulf coast (Alabama, Mississippi, New Orleans), and where you can, the premiums have gone up 200% or more! They've raised property insurance premiums along the Atlantic Coast, too, all the way to Rhode Island and Maine. Pabst, what are you paying for property insurance in FL?