(NEW YORK) — Fans of three-egg omelets and bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwiches have more to worry about than just high cholesterol. The wholesale price of a dozen eggs has more than quadrupled year over year, and some experts warn the prices are unlikely to decrease anytime soon.

Egg prices peaked during the holiday season, hurting smaller grocery chains that can’t compete with larger chains and leading to price increases for restaurants and other small businesses, experts said. The price increase in eggs also comes as the cost of most foods have increased significantly, putting a strain on grocery shoppers and small business owners alike.

“I’ve been here 50 years, I have never seen anything like that with control of prices, maybe with Carter in the 70s,” said Gus Benetos, the owner of Manhattan’s Westside Restaurant.

Urner Barry, a company that publishes the “fair market price” for items like eggs, meat, and plant proteins, set the wholesale trade value for a dozen “midwest large” eggs at 89 cents on Dec. 22, 2021. A year later, the price for a dozen eggs skyrocketed to $5.46, according to Karyn Rispoli, the editor of Urner Barry’s Egg Price Current. The price beat the previous record high of $3.09 during the pandemic.

“We blew that previous high, way out of the water,” Rispoli said.

Since the holiday peak, Rispoli noted that the egg market has since “corrected” to $4.33 on Jan. 10, mainly due to decreased demand following the holiday season. However, with the avian flu outbreak still impacting U.S. poultry farmers, Rispoli said the price will likely remain high for now.

Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza have killed nearly 40 million hens since February 2021, five percent of the U.S. chicken flock, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Egg production has also declined by 4 percent since 2021, the spokesperson said.

Mark Sauder, the CEO of Sauder Eggs, one of the country’s largest family-owned egg wholesalers, said he believes most significant factor impacting business is avian flu.

“This particular strain or this particular outbreak seems to be lasting longer,” he said.

While the wholesale price has steadily increased, consumers have felt the delayed impact of the price increase due to a few factors unique to eggs.

First, the demand for eggs in the short term is inelastic, according to Dartmouth College economics professor Bruce Sacerdote. Their status as a low cost, staple item in the grocery store, and a necessity in many recipes and diets lead many consumers to continue buying eggs in the short term despite price increases.

The USDA spokesperson said eggs are still one of the most competitively priced proteins in the grocery store compared to other animal proteins. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in November a yearly 10 percent increase in the overall cost of food.

“It has gone up, but as a percentage relative to the other spend of my food, it’s like it hasn’t been that impactful,” Leonard Chung, a Manhattan grocery shopper, said about the cost of eggs.

Second, according to Rispoli, many grocery stores use a “loss leader” tactic, artificially lowering the price of eggs to attract consumers. Grocery stores recover losses when shoppers buy other items with a higher profit margin. According to the USDA, a 12-pack of brown grade-A eggs cost $3.99 on average for consumers on the week of Dec. 23, while the wholesale cost was significantly higher.

“Even as the market was rising rather dramatically, consumers weren’t always seeing those prices at the consumer level grocery stores,” Rispoli said.

Sharmilla Dabieden, a resident of Queens who traveled to Whole Foods in Tribeca for lower egg prices, was one of the beneficiaries of this pricing approach. After seeing eggs advertised at roughly $3.29, she loaded her cart with three cartons of eggs.

“We need eggs, so this is why I’m shopping around, and I look online to see where I can get the cheapest,” Dabieden said.

According to Rispoli, the price increase in eggs is beginning to become apparent to consumers despite these two factors.

While prices cool, small businesses will feel the impact of the price hike alongside consumers.

“Smaller independent chains, regional chains, you know, they’ve struggled to be able to offer those same kinds of discounts, and so they’ve really taken a hit in terms of their sales numbers,” Rispoli noted.

At the Westside Restaurant, the archetype of a Greek diner in Manhattan, the cost of eggs and food has tightened profit margins. Benetos said that one case of eggs – 30 dozen eggs – has increased from $90 to $160 over a few months, and other food costs have risen by 30 to 40 percent, leading to price increases across the menu. His son Nikos Benetos noted that they priced a recent daily special — a feta cheese, broccoli, and tomato omelet — at over $19.

At a coffee cart on the Upper West Side, employee Santi Sayago said egg prices increased by 150 percent over six months, making it difficult to turn a 50-cent profit on a bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich.

Abi Coffey, a manager at chain Think Coffee, noted that they have increased the price of egg sandwiches by a dollar over the last year, leading to customer complaints.

According to Sacerdote, when consumers begin to recognize the price hike at the grocery store, it might validate concerns about inflation.

“I think that is probably how people get a notion of how bad inflation is when they get their fuel bill for their home, the gas bill for their car, and their food bill,” Sacerdote said.

While costs have decreased recently, experts say it might take months for the prices to return to normal levels fully.

“Whether it’s going to continue into 2023; obviously, I don’t have a crystal ball, but all signs point to yes,” Rispoli said.

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(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Justice announced a $31 million settlement with City National Bank over allegations that the Los Angeles-based bank engaged in “redlining” – a pattern of lending discrimination – in Los Angeles County.

The settlement, which according to the DOJ is the largest redlining settlement in the department’s history, will benefit individuals and communities impacted by the discriminatory practice, the DOJ announced on Thursday.

Redlining, a discriminatory and illegal practice, is when lenders withhold services from customers who live in low-income neighborhoods, disproportionately impacting communities of color.

“We disagree with the allegations, but nonetheless support the DOJ in its efforts to ensure equal access to credit for all consumers, regardless of race,” City National said in a statement to ABC News.” … We are committed to ensuring that all consumers have an equal opportunity to apply for and obtain credit. We stand proudly on our legacy of integrity, corporate philanthropy and commitment to the communities we serve.”

“The Justice Department will continue to build on our efforts to vigorously enforce federal fair lending laws and work to ensure that financial institutions provide equal opportunity for every American to obtain credit,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement on Thursday. “In advance of what would have been Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 94th birthday, it is a fitting time to reaffirm our commitment to that work, and to the pursuit of justice for all Americans.”

Despite 50 years of federal oversight under the landmark Fair Housing Act of 1968, housing segregation persists in America’s largest cities and urban centers.

An exclusive ABC News analysis of mortgage-lending data published in February 2022 shows a pattern of racial isolation remains consistent following decades of failed initiatives.

The analysis shows that 20 of the nation’s top 100 metropolitan areas have an “extreme dissimilarity index” of 50 or higher — meaning at least half of the population would have had to move to another neighborhood in the area to achieve total integration in 2019.

The complaint against City National Bank, which was filed by the DOJ in federal court on Thursday, alleges that from 2017 through at least 2020 the bank avoided marketing and underwriting mortgage lending services to majority Black and Latino neighborhoods and discouraging those Los Angeles County residents from obtaining mortgage loans.

City National Bank only opened one branch in a majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhood and did not assign an employee to generate loan applications for the branch like they did branches located in majority-white areas over the past 20 years, according to the complaint.

According to the DOJ, City National agreed to take a number of actions to address redlining, including investing at least $29.5 million in a loan subsidy fund for communities of color in LA County. They will also open a new branch in a predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhood as well as conducting an assessment to identify needs for lending services in those communities.

“City National worked cooperatively with the Department to remedy the redlining allegations,” the DOJ said in the statement on Thursday. “In conjunction with this settlement, City National has announced that it is proactively taking steps to expand its lending services in other markets around the country to provide greater access to credit in communities of color.”

City National Bank announced a new lending initiative on Wednesday that will help entrepreneurs and potential homebuyers in underserved communities gain access to capital, according to a press release.

“At City National, supporting our communities is core to who we are as an organization,” City National CEO Kelly Coffey said in a statement on Wednesday. “We take very seriously our obligation to ensure that all businesses and consumers have an equal opportunity to apply for and obtain credit.”

The settlement comes more than one year after the DOJ announced an initiative to combat redlining – a practice that is illegal under the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

Garland said on Thursday that the Combating Redlining Initiative, which was launched in October 2021, has secured over $75 million dollars in relief for communities impacted by lending discrimination.

City National is the latest bank that was found over the past few years to be engaging in redlining practices in the U.S.

In October 2021, federal officials and the DOJ announced that Trustmark National Bank agreed to pay a $5 million settlement over allegations it engaged in lending discrimination in communities of color in Memphis, Tennessee.

ABC News’ Mark Nichols contributed to this report.

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