One major city has emerged as stand out winner in the war on inflation - with prices rising at a far slower pace than other areas across the U.S.

Consumer prices in Phoenix, Arizona, rose by 2.6 percent between April 2023 and last month, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

This is almost down to the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target, and is far lower than the higher national annual inflation rate of 3.4 per cent. 

The result is also is not a one-off, with the city holding its rate below 3 percent since October last year - and even falling to as low as 2.2 percent in February.  

Economists say the key to Phoenix's lower inflation rate is cooling rents and home prices, NBC News reported. 

Experts explained that when rent prices come down, overall inflation falls too. 

'Housing inflation remains my most valuable indicator for the immediate future,' Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee said last month. 

In Phoenix, median home sale prices rose 5.1 percent to an average of $450,000 between April 2023 and April 2024.

But the increase came as sales slowed sharply, with nearly 3 percent fewer homes sold than in the previous 12 month period, according to Redfin data. 

Phoenix sellers are also caving to a lack of demand, with 31 percent of homeowners slashing their asking prices in March.  

Mark Stapp, a real estate professor at Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business, told NBC News: 'We are likely past the worst of things in terms of this substantial, persistent increase in rents and home prices in Phoenix, and we are going to be back to something that is more reflective of normal trends.'