New Yorkers recently experienced a phenomenon unheard of in these parts for more than a half-century: the cost of living actually went down over the course of a year.
From May 2008 to May 2009, the Consumer Price Index dropped 0.1 in Gotham, the first time the city has enjoyed a fall in the cost of living since 1956.
The dip -- so small that you probably didn't even notice it -- was the result almost entirely of the drop in gas and oil prices, with energy prices plummeting 25 percent.
Meanwhile, food went up 2.9 percent. and rent popped up 5.3 percent -- with another bump likely.
Don't expect the good times to continue, however, as prices in May were .2 percent higher than in April.
"This may be a one-month anomaly, as gasoline prices are rising again,” Michael Dolfman, regional commissioner of labor statistics, told The New York Times.
