So what does their data say about the cost of a house in 2019 vs today? The cost of a vehicle in 2019 vs today? it could just be the BLS not fully capturing inflation
>The cost of a vehicle in 2019 vs today
BLS data says it's 30% higher. Does that seem about right?
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SETA
>cost of a house in 2019 vs today
Houses aren't directly in the CPI for complicated reasons, but the short version is that they're an investment. Americans buy 401ks too, but it would make little sense to factor in the S&P 500 into the CPI. Housing is factored in though, through imputed rents and rental prices.
That said, BLS is starting to tweak how they measure health care costs. [0]
[0] https://www.bls.gov/cpi/additional-resources/improvements-cp...
This argument is so weak. Housing is unlike those other items in that it's both by far most households' largest expense, and difficult or impossible to substitute a cheaper version: you can move to a cheap area, but there are no decent-paying jobs there, leaving you in the same or worse boat.
And there are precious few cheaper areas left: even Vegas, long known for low cost of living, is approaching $500k for a just-ok home. At today's interest rates, that's like $3300-4100 per month all-in. Almost no one can reasonably afford that; even software development jobs barely crack $100k here.
that's reflected in the CPI basket construction. "Rent of shelter" which includes rent and OER makes up 34.8% of the CPI basket.
> and difficult or impossible to substitute a cheaper version: you can move to a cheap area, but there are no decent-paying jobs there, leaving you in the same or worse boat.
that's also factored in because they sample prices according to where people actually are. They're not taking prices across 50 states and doing a simple average.