Affordability has been a source of household frustration and a key focus of political discourse in recent months, as prices for everyday goods and services continue to rise.
"People are yelling about affordability," said Martha Gimbel, executive director and co-founder of the Budget Lab at Yale University. "I think it's very obviously become a political flash point," she said.
The inflation rate has throttled back from its peak in 2022, when it hit a roughly 40-year high of 9.1%, as measured by the annual consumer price index. It was 2.7% in November 2025.
But the everyday prices that consumers pay remain much higher than they were before the Covid-19 pandemic. The CPI — which measures how quickly prices are rising for a basket of goods and services — has risen 26% in the past six years.
Put another way: The inflation rate since Q4 2019 has risen about twice as fast as the Federal Reserve's optimal rate, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's.
