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by api 2254 days ago
The fact that the most common inflation numbers (AFAIK) don't include real estate makes them worthless.
2 comments

Shelter (rent and "owners' equivalent of rent") are included in the CPI.
The increasing volatility of future economic prosperity in most places, as well as concentration of burgeoning businesses into a few select cities is not factored into the CPI, and is probably not able to be factored.

The difference in probabilities of future life outcomes for living in certain prosperous neighborhoods and cities and the compound effect of children growing up in those is very material nowadays. This especially effects how much more housing and land costs in certain cities, and how much people are willing to gamble on it by leveraging more to "buy in" to those probabilities of future success.

Not only are they included they account for almost a third of CPI. Thing is it is measuring nationwide housing costs which may not be moving in sync with Bay Area rents
Or that the rise in stock prices unsupported by fundamentals isn't considered inflation either.