Texas officials may be celebrating the Lone Star State’s record-setting growth in 2023, but everyday Texans are still dealing with the crushing weight of inflation, soaring housing costs, and the highest interest rates in over two decades.
Texans are living through two competing economic realities: one celebrated on paper by academics and politicians and the other that ordinary consumers are living through, according to Bankrate Analyst Sarah Foster.
“Every day people are really seeing their lives pre-pandemic and post-pandemic,” said Foster, per The Dallas Morning News. “They know how much it costs to fill up their gas tanks, they know how much it cost to buy a gallon of milk three years ago. That’s really what’s standing out.”
About 60% of U.S. workers — a roughly 5% increase from the previous year — say their wages have failed to keep pace with inflation, according to Foster.
Although the Texas economy has benefited from the mass migration of people to sunbelt suburbs following the pandemic, momentum really slowed in 2023, says Comerica Bank Chief Economist Bill Adams.
Despite annual inflation falling to 3.1% in November, prices remain up 16.7% since February 2021, Foster said.
“That’s the feeling workers are struggling with,” she said, per DMN.
For instance, $1 today has the same purchasing power as $0.85 in November 2022, $0.71 in 2010, and $0.57 in the year 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.
This means the U.S. dollar has lost nearly half its value in the last 23 years.
While Adams forecasts a mild slowdown in economic growth for Texas in the first half of 2024, he expects growth to pick back up in the latter half of the year. He notes that growth in Texas is expected to outpace that of other states over the same time period, which should help Texans better navigate the economy in 2024.