Illinois Cities and Towns Now Lead Nation in Inflation

Ignoring inflation doesn’t affect it. January 2025 in the Illinois city of Chicago and the surrounding towns including Naperville and Elgin the inflation rate year to year is the most in the USA.

Compared to January 2024 costs are up 4.3 percent in the area now per a new WalletHub survey.

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Across the country the inflation average year to year for January was 3 percent. These Illinois areas are almost 50% higher than the national inflation average over the same time span. The numbers continue to rise month to month here.

Why this particular area of Illinois? Housing. Property taxes are so inflated there is a lack of desire to build new homes, especially in that northeast portion of the state. Throw in low interest rates for mortgages from previous years and Illinois residents don’t want to sell their current situation for higher prices all around. The longer it goes the more acute it gets.

Grocery prices are far higher than they were just a few years ago, and nowhere near what they were before COVID-19. Toss in the killing of huge numbers of chickens due to the avian flu scare and you get a surge in the cost of eggs and chicken. Compound that with President Trumps tariffs and tariff threats to other nations to force them to stop taking advantage of the American consumer, producer and companies and you have a situation where prices for food look to stay elevated for a while.