Inflation remains elevated in the I.E.

Region is closely tracking national trends

The Inland Empire’s inflation numbers were recently updated for May 2025; the all-items index was up 2.6% year-over-year, slightly higher than the 2.5% reported for March 2025. Thus, inflation remains elevated in the region and prices are still increasing.

The good part of this month’s print was housing price inflation, which was still positive, but was down from the last reading (2.9% in May 2025, 3.3% in March 2025). The bad part of this month’s release is that both new and used car and truck prices are increasing again. After over a year of steep price declines for used vehicles and moderate price declines for new vehicles, both are now up year-over-year for the third consecutive reading. See the chart below.

Also, restaurant price inflation (the BLS terms it the “food away from home” category) remains above 5%, as it has for close to 2 years now. And before that, it was even higher – registering at above 10% for late-2022 and early 2023. See the chart above.