Thursday, December 31, 2009

A decade of prices ... increases and decreases

It's the end of a decade and everything has gone up in price. Or has it?

Here are some items that have decreased in price since 1999:
- Average domestic airfare: $329.00 down to $301.00: -8.51%
- Credit card average APR: 15.07% down to 13.71%: -9.02%
- Batteries, AA, 4, Energizer: $3.99 down to $3.49: -12.53%
- iMac desktop computer, Apple: $1,499.00 down to $999.00: -33.36%
- Prime rate: 8.50% down to 3.25%: -6

But most prices have increased over the past 10 years. A sample:
- Empire State Building Observation Deck: $4.00 increased to $20.00: +400.00%
- New York Times daily edition: $0.75 increased to $2.00: +166.66%
- Slurpee, largest, 7-11: $0.99 increased to $2.12: +114.14%
- Gallon of gasoline: $1.30 increased to $2.56: +96.92%
- Average ticket price, Boston Red Sox: $28.33 increased to $50.24: +77.34%
- Average expanded basic cable (per month): $31.22 increased to $49.65: +59.03%
- Babysitting per hour: $7-$10 increased to $10-$15: +50.00%
- Home value, average: $119,600.00 increased to $173,100.00: +44.73%
- Electricity per 500 kwh: $45.38 increased to $65.21: +43.70%
- Movie ticket: $5.06 increased to $7.18: +41.90%
- Coca-Cola, one liter: $1.14 increased to $1.34: +17.54%
- Gallon of milk: $2.88 increased to $3.05: +5.90%
- Top 100 Music CD: $13.65 increased to $13.98: +2.42%

Check out WalletPop.com for more prices changes over the past decade.

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