July 14, 2017

The rate of inflation in the owners’ equivalent rent (OER) component had been accelerating gradually since 2010, when it was actually negative. (The OER index is a better measure of pure rents since it excludes utilities that are often included in the index for rent proper index.) It peaked at 3.6 percent on a year-over-year basis in December of 2016 and since then has slowed modestly. The year-over-year increase for June was 3.2 percent. The slowdown is considerably sharper if we compare the last three months with the prior three months. The annualized rate of inflation for the OER over this period was just 2.6 percent. For more, see the latest Prices Byte.