According to the report, rents gained 0.4% in August from the previous month, slightly lower than July’s 0.5% increase. Meanwhile, owners’ equivalent rent was up 0.5% for the month, higher than July’s 0.4% rise. Owners’ equivalent rent is the estimated rent a homeowner would pay if they were renting their own property.
“To see OER accelerating at this point is very strange, very difficult to explain. There’s a lot of nuances and unusual things in this data. It’s very noisy,” Brian Rose, UBS global wealth management senior economist, told Yahoo Finance after the released report.
Overall, August’s CPI rose 0.2% over the previous month, unchanged from July’s 0.2% month-over-month gain.
Economists continue to believe CPI data will eventually show a consistent deceleration in rental prices.
“At some point, it will slow because the rents aren’t rising very quickly, but exactly when this will happen is hard to say,” Rose said.
h/t HIncand3nza