Money & The Economy

Housing Costs Surge In July, Accounting For 90% Of Total Inflation

The cost of housing surged in July, accounting for nearly 90% of total inflation, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released Wednesday.

Shelter costs rose 5.1% year-over-year and 0.4% month-over-month, after rising 0.2% in June, the BLS showed. The 0.4% monthly increase was greater than Bank of America economists’ expectations of 0.3%, according to investment research firm Morningstar.

“The most disappointing aspect of this report was the shelter data,” Omair Sharif, founder of the research firm Inflation Insights, wrote in a note after the report, according to Yahoo Finance.

The July increase in shelter costs was comprised of a 0.5% increase in rent, a 0.4% increase in owners’ equivalent rent and a 0.2% increase in lodging away from home, BLS data showed.

Rents are typically fixed for the duration of a lease, creating a lag between new lease prices and rental inflation data. As a result, despite cooling prices for new leases, overall housing inflation is expected to remain above pre-pandemic levels through the end of 2025, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

“Rents are up 22.3% since Jan ’21, but this metric suffers from large lags and will continue marching higher in the months ahead as it incorporates today’s price changes,” E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Rental and owners’ equivalent rent costs have both increased nearly 24% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). Cumulative inflation, meanwhile, is somewhat lower at 22%.

Inflation measured 2.9% year-over-year in July, the first time the headline number has fallen below 3% in over two years.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org

Owen Klinsky

Share
Published by
Owen Klinsky

Recent Posts

State Dept Denies Visas To Foreigners Who Celebrated Charlie Kirk’s Death

The U.S. State Department announced Tuesday that it’s revoking the visas of individuals who either…

5 hours ago

Woke=Broke: NBC News Hit With Layoffs As Comcast Spins Off Cable Networks

NBC News laid off around 150 employees on Wednesday ahead of its parent company, Comcast…

5 hours ago

Gazans Fear Hamas Won’t Honor Peace Deal As Group Reportedly Massacres Civilians

Some Palestinians fear Hamas will not honor President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan as…

5 hours ago

Blessed Be the Peacemakers

According to Google and AI, “Blessed are the peacemakers” is a biblical quote from the Sermon…

5 hours ago

Is NVIDIA Having A Dylan Mulvaney Moment?

In 2023, Bud Light’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney became one of the most costly marketing…

5 hours ago

America Held Hostage

Many think it’s the radical loony left pressuring Schumer to keep the Government closed until…

5 hours ago