A checkout lane at a Meijer store in Howell, Michigan. (Jon King/Michigan Advance)

Consumer sentiment dropped for the second month in a row, according to the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, with respondents citing concerns about the Iran War, resulting in high gas prices and poor buying conditions.

“The Iran conflict appears to be passing through to consumer views primarily through effects on prices, particularly gas and energy prices stemming from disruptions to shipping,” University of Michigan economist Joanne Hsu, director of the surveys, said in a news release. “At this time, consumers do not foresee relief from high prices in the near future. In fact, consumers expect them to worsen before they improve.”

The consumer sentiment index reached a low point in April, comparable with its levels in June 2022 — which was the lowest it had reached in decades.

The consumer confidence level is low across demographics like income, age and education, as well as across partisan lines — though the survey noted that after the two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was announced in mid-April and gas prices dropped marginally, the sentiment did rise a bit.

“High price reasons dominate consumers’ thinking, along with recent increases in consumers mentioning costs of gasoline as a negative factor,” Hsu said in the news release. “Interest rate concerns are also prominent, though little changed from previous months.”

Overall high prices — combined with 22% of respondents noting weakening incomes — meant that personal finances worsened over the course of the month. Only 21% of consumers expect to be financially better off a year from now, a drop from 33% who said the same in January 2025, the news release noted.

And buying conditions are similarly unfavorable for consumers, including for vehicles, which fell 12% this month.

Expectations for inflation also increased, the Surveys of Consumers website noted, surging from 3.8% in March to 4.7% in April — the largest one-month increase since April 2025 and higher than those seen in 2024.

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