The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released Wednesday showed that housing inflation still isn't easing.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shelter costs, the biggest contributor to overall inflation, ticked up 0.5% month over month in August, higher than July’s 0.4% increase. On an annual basis, shelter costs rose 5.2% in August, up from July’s year-over-year gain of 5.1%.
Economists have been expecting a slowdown in rent increases that has been reflected in separate data to show up in the CPI for over a year. An influx of new apartment supply has helped bring rents down from highs seen in 2022 .
But the trend has been slow to show up in the CPI report. Unlike other sources that track rents on a monthly basis , BLS collects rent data every six months.