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Journal Article
Comparing Measures of Housing Inflation
Measuring the price of shelter for homeowners is difficult, even when housing markets are stable. A new measure of shelter price inflation uses mortgage, tax, and insurance payments, rather than the implied rental value of homes used in the consumer price index (CPI). The payments method suggests year-over-year shelter price inflation rose 4.3% nationally in July, compared with the CPI’s 5.8% estimate. Conditions in rental markets likely explain this difference. Comparing the varying results nationally and across regions highlights the challenge of accurately measuring the shelter inflation ...
Journal Article
Inflation, Part 2: How Do We Construct and Choose an Index?
Both the CPI and the PCE price indexes measure the prices of consumer goods and services— but they differ in important ways.
Newsletter
The Inflation Rate Is Falling, but Prices Are Not
Inflation is likely a topic your students are familiar with, but there is still a lot of confusion around the concept. This brief article explains the seeming paradox we see in our economy: The inflation rate is decreasing, but prices continue to increase. We’ll also disentangle the concepts of inflation, disinflation, deflation, and the CPI.
Journal Article
New-Tenant Rent Passthrough and the Future of Rent Inflation
New-tenant rent inflation rose sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, subsequently falling. Concomitantly, consumer price index (CPI) tenant rent, which measures rent increases for both new and continuing renters, rose more gradually and, after falling somewhat, has remained elevated. To illustrate why CPI rent inflation has remained elevated, we combine a measure of new-tenant rents and annual renter mobility rates to create a simulated CPI tenant rent inflation measure. We use this simulation to define a “rent gap” that represents the difference between actual CPI tenant rent inflation ...