4 Things Getting Cheaper in 2024

2. Home heating oil

Like airline tickets, the cost to warm your home is also getting a little cheaper. As of March, oil was down 3.7 percent compared with last year.

When fuel is down, “that provides relief for things like home heating, airline fares and goods,” Rossman says. 

3. Cars

Prices for new and used cars have fallen for months, with new-vehicle prices seeing a slight decline in March and used vehicle prices down 2.2 percent compared with a year ago. Driving the trend is that pandemic supply chain issues are over, which means there is more inventory on showroom floors and used car lots. Also, rising interest rates make it costly to borrow money to buy a new car. That has pressured sellers to resist raising prices pricing in 2023 and will continue to do so in 2024.

“For new and used vehicles, each month there were modest declines in 2023,” Colyar says. “The same dynamics will continue in 2024.”

Moody’s expects new vehicle prices to decline less than 5 percent in 2024 and used car prices to drop around 8 percent.

4. Certain food at the grocery store

You wouldn’t guess it from your grocery bill, but food prices have been decelerating for several months. The problem is that prices are coming down off record highs, so consumers aren’t feeling the relief. Nonetheless, the USDA expects grocery store prices to decline 0.6 percent in 2024. In March, food at home was unchanged, although sausage, fish, eggs, cheese and some fruit saw year-over-year declines. Eggs are down 6.8 percent year-over-year, apples are 10.1 percent lower and cheese is 3.1 percent cheaper. Breakfast sausage prices are down 4 percent, ham is 4.2 percent cheaper, and fish and seafood cost 2.6 percent less.

“Grocery bills have gone up substantially,” Rossman says.“If it levels off and even declines slightly, that could be a welcome change.”