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As the housing market twists and turns like a Formula One circuit, consumers have been placing their homebuying and selling plans in the pit lane — waiting for the best time to race back onto the track.
Although the time to shift gears isn’t favorable just yet, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday provided hope the housing market will return to a more normal pace next year.
In October, the all-item inflation index increased 7.7 percent year over year, the lowest annual increase seen since January’s record-breaking jump to 7.5 percent, according to the bureau’s latest Consumer Price Index. Before Thursday’s report, analysts forecasted the index would rise 7.9 percent, down from September’s 8.2 percent gain.
“This morning’s C.P.I. data were a welcome relief,” Lorie K. Logan, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, told The New York Times. “But there is still a long way to go.”
The “long way to go” is primarily found in the statistics for housing inflation, where renters and buyers are still bearing the brunt of an increasingly volatile market marred by booming housing costs, higher (albeit not record-breaking) mortgage rates, and other economic woes.
In October, rental costs rose 0.7 percent month-over-month and 7.5 percent year-over-year, respectively. Meanwhile, costs on the for-sale side increased at a slightly slower rate of 0.6 percent month-over-month and 6.9 percent year-over-year.
President Biden, on the heels of a relatively positive midterm performance, said October’s report was evidence that his administration’s economic policies are working and inflation— including housing — could reach a “soft landing” sometime next year.
“I am optimistic, because…