The cost of living is — quite frankly — scary. I mean, if you're a homeowner, so much you pay for is loosely indexed by your property value. Sure, it's great that our house has appreciated by 400% since 2011, but so has the cost of insurance, property taxes, HOA fees and so on. Our incomes sure haven't appreciated by 400% over that period!
Meanwhile, a very ordinary dozen eggs is currently $9.89, allegedly because of "bird flu." When that threat wanes, will the price come back down? Not likely...
I agree, without a government mandate or some kind of price caps I don't think we'll see prices go down too much on essentials. Between 2018 and 2024 our HOA fee rose from $275 to $620. When adjusted for inflation incomes are considerably less than they were a decade ago. It's pretty easy to see this road we're on is leading and it's nowhere good.