Housing costs are still the stickiest part of an otherwise cool inflation report
Inflation may be broadly cooling, but housing continues to be one of the most stubborn rising costs consumers face.
April's Consumer Price Index data showed that shelter costs rose 0.3% last month, accelerating slightly from March and accounting for over half of the 0.2% month-over-month price increase across all goods and services.
Compared with a year earlier, shelter costs are up 4%.
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Owner's equivalent rent — an estimate of how much a homeowner would pay to rent an equivalent property — rose 0.4% in April, while rent jumped 0.3% from a month earlier.
Housing inflation has remained elevated since the pandemic and its persistence has complicated the Federal Reserve's efforts to broadly bring down inflation. But there are some signs that costs are cooling this year.
Learn more: Is it a good time to buy a house?
A surge in multifamily construction in recent years has helped keep asking rents relatively flat in much of the country for the past year, and home price appreciation is slowing from levels seen in recent years.
While lower broad inflation levels should be good news for homebuyers and sellers, many are still contending with other factors that make it hard to move forward, Realtor.com Senior Economist Jake Krimmel said in a statement.
'With the spring housing season underway, both buyers and sellers are facing a market where optimism over lower levels of inflation is tempered by elevated borrowing costs and economic uncertainty,' Krimmel said. 'Until borrowing costs fall meaningfully, housing activity is likely to remain subdued, even as underlying demand and supply slowly improve.'
Claire Boston is a Senior Reporter for Yahoo Finance covering housing, mortgages, and home insurance.
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