Rents Are the Fed’s ‘Biggest Stumbling Block’ in Taming US Inflation
Construction of luxury apartments at the former site of the Paradise Valley Mall in Phoenix in January.
Photographer: Megan Mendoza/The Republic/USA Today Network
When inflation peaked above 7% in 2022, it was relatively broad-based across goods and services. In 2024, with inflation back below 3%, that’s no longer the case: What’s left of the problem now is mainly about housing.
Rent dominates the inflation indexes on which the Federal Reserve bases its interest-rate decisions. Hotter-than-expected readings for the category in the first few months of the year are a big reason the central bank is hesitant to cut rates. “Housing is the biggest stumbling block,” says Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee. “We thought we basically understood the mechanical, short-run model of how much housing inflation should be coming down. And it hasn’t come down as fast as we thought it was going to have come down at this point.”