The Price of This Household Item Is Plunging

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Aug 13, 9:00AM EDT

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The Price of This Household Item Is Plunging — © Inside Creative House / iStock via Getty Images

Inflation eased in July, rising 8.5% compared to the same month last year, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ July consumer price index report. That was slightly less than the CPI increase in June of 9.1%. The details told the story. While the gas index fell 7.7% compared to June, it was still up 44% compared to July last year. Meanwhile, the cost of food continued to jump.

While Americans face a cost of living challenge unlike anything in decades, the prices of several household items declined, a rarity in such a widely inflationary environment. The drop was particularly pronounced among consumer electronics. The price of smartphones plunged 20% year over year. Although there is no ready answer as to why, there has been a price war among the three largest wireless companies — Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile — to gain market share. The price of televisions fell almost 15%.

Unfortunately, very few items declined in price in July, with many regularly used items soaring in price. Fuel prices overall were up year over year, in some cases by double digits, despite the June easing. And the price of common foods like eggs also spiked. (Fight inflation, don’t buy these 9 items.)

There continues to be a battle over how inflation can best be brought under control before it causes a full blown recession. A recession may have already started as both first quarter and second quarter GDP fell. The Federal Reserve continues to raise rates at a pace not seen since before The Great Recession.

Critics who said the Fed began hiking rates too late and at first too slowly, now warn of a recession as a result of the recent aggressive Fed moves. Inflation, they claim, is already baked into the economy because of low unemployment and difficult supply chain problems. (Russia’s war in Ukraine and pandemic supply constraints are creating price pressures worldwide. Here are products with skyrocketing prices around the world.)

It is a very good bet that the number of items that will drop in price every month in the near term will be few and far between.

To determine the household items that are dropping in price, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the BLS’ Consumer Price Index Summary July report. Prices are compared to July 2021.

Click here to see the price of this household item is plunging.

13. Recorded music and music subscriptions
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -0.2%

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12. Wireless telephone services
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -0.7%

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tomatoes (CC BY 2.0) by liz west

11. Tomatoes
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -1.4%

10. Computer software and accessories
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -1.4%

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9. Uncooked beef steaks
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -1.5%

8. Computers, peripherals, and smart home assistants
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -3.5%

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7. Education and communication commodities
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -7.0%

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6. Ship fare
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -7.5%

5. Car and truck rental
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -11.9%

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4. Telephone hardware, calculators, and other consumer information items
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -12.7%

3. Food at employee sites and schools
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -13.9%

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2. Televisions
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -14.6%

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1. Smartphones
> Price decrease, July 2021 to July 2022: -20.0%

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.