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by PaulDavisThe1st 703 days ago
Housing costs are not included in measures of inflation.

While they have gone up (almost certainly faster than inflation), they are not part of the inflation numbers that we hear in the news.
1 comments
JumpCrisscross 703 days ago
> Housing costs are not included in measures of inflation

Yes, they are [1][2].

[1] https://www.bea.gov/sites/default/files/methodologies/RIPfac...

[2] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-does-the-consumer-pri...

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PaulDavisThe1st 703 days ago
My apologies, home ownership costs are not included in inflation measures. But I was wrong and you're correct: rents are.

Which actually makes my point even more clearly: yes, there are a lot of anecdotes about not being able to make the rent, but these are not supported by the statistics for inflation and median income. Doesn't mean that they are wrong, but makes it more likely that there are other reasons for the proliferation of these stories.

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JumpCrisscross 703 days ago
> home ownership costs are not included in inflation measures

They are, as one of the inputs to imputed rent for owner-occupied housing.

> lot of anecdotes about not being able to make the rent

A lot is explained by regional variation. For example, real mean wages in San Francisco are back where they were in 2017 [1].

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MWACL06075

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johnnyanmac 703 days ago
>A lot is explained by regional variation.

but no one is digging in to talk about the regional variation. SF going back to being "still one of the highest CoL post genrification" instead of "unbearable for all but the elite" isn't exactly comforting.

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