President Trump visited Nevada and Arizona last week to tout his economic agenda, including the "no tax on tips" deduction, but a new report found that affordability still varies dramatically across our region.
The study, "How the Post Pandemic Price Surge Reshaped Affordability in America," looked at the costs of basic living expenses like shelter, utilities, and groceries.
In the Mountain West, the study showed Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado were among the "least affordable" states, where households dedicated more than 20% of their gross income to shelter and utilities.
Utah ranked slightly above other expensive Mountain West states at 36th, but residents still paid about 22% of their income on those two basic needs.
Wyoming and New Mexico were the most affordable Mountain West states, ranked 8th and 15th respectively.
Following the pandemic, inflation slowed but baseline costs kept rising, explained the report's author Zach Milne, senior economist and research analyst with the Arizona-based Common Sense Institute.
"Prices shot up so fast in the 2022-23 inflationary surge and so those prices are now at this new level that is much much higher than what it was before that inflationary surge," Milne said.
And that trend has continued as people flee more expensive states. The institute estimated that, on average, American households needed as much as $15K more in 2025 for the same basic expenses they paid for in 2019. Milne believed the answers will have to be addressed through policy changes.
"I really think the solution is to find ways to build more new affordable housing in states like Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho in order to meet that increasing demand of people wanting to live in that state," Milne said.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
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