Washington part of region seeing inflation above national average
Aug 21, 2025, 2:28 PM | Updated: 2:31 pm
Customers shop at a local grocery store. Inflation remains higher than the national average in the Pacific region. (Photo courtesy of KIRO 7)
(Photo courtesy of KIRO 7)
The cost of living in the Pacific region, which includes Alaska, California, Oregon, and Washington, remains high.
Inflation in the Pacific region continued to surpass the national average in July 2025, according to a report from the Common Sense Institute Oregon.
From July 2024 to July 2025, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers in the Pacific Region jumped 3.27%, compared to 2.7% annually.
The average household in the Pacific region has spent thousands more since 2020 due to inflation — $7,146 more on food, $11,380 more on housing, $13,801 more on transportation, and $2,246 more on medical care. That brings the total to $46,339 more spent due to inflation.
From July 2024 to July 2025, every category the Common Sense Institute Oregon studied increased in price except for apparel, which was down 0.3%. The highest category was medical care, which rose 4.6% in price from July 2024 to July 2025. Services were up 4.1%, housing increased by 3.7%, and food rose by 3.6% in the same period.
However, the year before, from July 2023 to July 2024, nearly half of the categories showed a decrease in inflation.
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Pacific region sees strong housing demand
Mark McMullen, vice president of policy and research at Common Sense Institute Oregon, attributed the housing inflation to a lack of new homes and more demand, according to The Center Square.
“Just given the demand for housing in the region, and the supply constraints in terms of less building activity than we have seen elsewhere in the country, traditionally the housing costs have gone up faster in the west than other places,” he told The Center Square.
However, McMullen noted California heavily impacts the data collected in the Pacific region because the state has the largest amount of sales.
Seattle home prices were up 10% in June 2025 compared to last year, according to Redfin — the highest in the past five years.
The median sale price of a home in Seattle was $935,000 in June, while the month before it was $895,000.
Over the past few years, median sale prices tended to drop around January and pick back up during the summer, as shown on Redfin’s chart from 2021 to 2025. The lowest median home prices seen during that period were in January 2022.
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