With inflation still at levels not seen in years, many Americans are saying they’re feeling financially stressed. And some are even saying they’ve skipped meals to stay afloat.
A growing number of surveys are painting a picture of this era of financial challenge. One of the latest, from Clever Real Estate, showed that people’s personal-finance situation was the most-cited stressor in their lives, with 61% noting it as an issue. That put it above such stressors as mental health (cited by 57% of respondents), physical health (53%) and relationships (48%). Clever Real Estate surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults.
Perhaps even more significant: 39% of Americans say they have skipped meals to afford their housing payments, according to the Clever Real Estate survey. And among millennials, that figure rose to 44%. (Among Baby Boomers, it was 20%.)
Matt Brannon, a data analyst and writer with Clever Real Estate, said the story goes beyond inflation. It’s also about the surging price of housing and how wages haven’t kept pace with it.
Indeed, according to one report, housing prices have increased by 160% since 2000. Meanwhile, wages have not always kept pace with inflation in recent years.
Inflation, as quantified by the Consumer Price Index, currently stands at 6%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. New monthly figures for March are expected to be released Wednesday.
See also: 4 in 10 people are cutting back on groceries to buy dog food
The bottom line isn’t a pretty picture, said Brannon: “Americans have their back up against the wall.”
Other recent surveys have echoed the findings from Clever Real Estate, a company that matches home buyers with agents but also researches financial trends. A Capital One survey found that finance was also the biggest stressor in people’s lives — above work, family and politics.
Daniel Crosby, chief behavioral officer at Orion, a company that provides services for financial advisers, says the financial uncertainty stems from more than just the challenges of making ends meet. It’s about a feeling of unsteadiness brought upon by everything from the pandemic to the war in Ukraine, to say nothing of the looming threat of a recession.
“People haven’t really caught their breath” in the past few years, Crosby said.
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