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The Seattle-area inflation rate is also higher than the national inflation rate of 2.6%, and the core rate of 3.3%. That means costs in the region are increasing a bit more quickly compared with the U.S. average, explained Hart Hodges, associate professor at Western Washington University and a director of the school’s Center for Economic and Business Research.

“Seattle already had a cost of living that was noticeably above the U.S. average,” Hodges said. That can be worrisome in the long run. “If inflation is always a little bit faster, a little bit higher, then you’re saying cost of living is just, relatively speaking, still going to go up and up in Seattle. And that causes problems.”