Real Rent Index Hits All-Time High
Residential rents continued to outpace inflation at the start of 2007, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In the February release, BLS also revised many previously issued CPI numbers. The indices for 2005 are now in final form, and those for 2006 are now in "revised interim" form that will be subject to one more revision.

BLS also started publishing the CPI data to two additional decimal places, and altered the way it rounds percentage changes. Despite these adjustments, the historical pattern of the real rent index (which uses CPI data to adjust rent changes for overall inflation) was not greatly affected.

Based on seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Indices; U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. The annual rates indicate what the percentage change would be if the current monthly rate were sustained over a 12-month period.The real rent index is the CPI for rent of primary residence divided by the CPI for all items and scaled so that January 1995 is 100.

Rents have been rising faster than inflation since August, and this trend continued in January, with rents increasing at an annual rate of 4.6% while the overall CPI increased at a rate of 2.1% — taking the real rent index up to an all-time high of 109.5. [ return to top ]