Housing, Lodging Costs Rose More in August Than Any Single Month Since 1991 The consumer price index's "shelter" figure rose a historic 0.7% in August 2022.

By Gabrielle Bienasz • Sep 13, 2022

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Housing and lodging have gone bananas.

According to the consumer price index for August, which was released Tuesday, shelter prices went up 0.7% from July to August 2022.

That is the largest one-month jump that measurement has had since 1991, according to an Axios Macro newsletter.

The newsletter's author, Neil Irwin, summed it up: "The rent, it is imminently reasonable to say, is too damn high," he wrote.

Shelter prices up 0.7%, a new high for this cycle. Last reached that in 1991.

The rent, it is imminently reasonable to say, is too damn high.
— Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) September 13, 2022

This month's CPI, which measures the average change over time of the price of a basket of goods and services for an urban consumer, was somewhat of a letdown after the overall CPI was unchanged in July — making many feel the economy is still on a runaway inflation train.

"The August CPI is a reminder that we don't always get what we want," Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate, said in an emailed press release.

The CPI increased by 0.1% from July to August. This year to date, on all the items the CPI measures, from gas, to food, to rent, the CPI has gone up 8.3% before seasonal adjustment.

"These numbers represent pricing pain for consumers and pressures for businesses trying to manage through them," Hamrick added.

Seventy-five percent of 1,479 small businesses surveyed through Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Small Businesses Program said inflation has negatively impacted their businesses' health over the past six months.

By many measures, rent prices have been increasing all over the country, from Manhattan, where rent broke $5,000 a month average in June for the first time, to Austin, to Boise.

The CPI's shelter measurement includes rent prices for those who rent, owners' equivalent rent (OER) for those who own their homes, and costs to get "lodging away from home," among other factors.