Another big jump in housing-related spending in October keeps the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation index above the central bank’s annual target. It is the largest monthly expense for many American households.
The price of housing and utilities in the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index was up 0.4% in October and 4.9% from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Wednesday – both in line with the increases in September.
Total services inflation stood at 0.4% last month and rose 3.9% year-on-year. Housing is a big part of that, and it is a slowly changing category in the inflation indices. Leases are typically only renewed once a year, while home sales are even less common.
