And CFB, if you were a first time homebuyer would you actually have double digit? I mean, you were not consuming the house before
Sorry, not getting this. If I'm a first time home buyer and homes that cost $200k last year and are $300k this year (pretty common in many regions), that just doesnt count?
By definition, inflation is either an increase in price or devaluation of an amount of currency.
Unless rent was maintaining parity with rising home prices (unlikely), and wages were pacing that rise (hasnt been the case the last 5-7 years), then for a first time home buyer the increased cost of entry against last years prices would represent inflation.
Are we seeing a reason why so many people jumped into 40 year interest only ARMS? After waiting for years to buy a home and watching them continue to increase in value well beyond a wage earners ability to keep up?
On the other matter, its easy to have organizational bias without having to scream 'conspiracy'. There are a lot of subjective components and economic leeway in making a measure of inflation.
Depends on what you buy. I dont buy new tv sets every year, and the one I want to buy always costs $2000 anyhow. But most of the things that are heavily weighted in my budget have increased a lot more than 35% over the last ten years. Insurance, food, gasoline, electricity, water...a lot of those have doubled on me in the last 2-10 years.
On top of that, you have invisible inflation. Products getting smaller, extra being left out, product quality suffering, customer service being cut to nil. Stuff isnt made as well as it was and you cant get service when it breaks.
Just in the last 5 years, I've had two television sets that were less than 3 years old drop dead, a new refrigerator die and the manufacturer unable to repair and unwilling to replace it, and a 1 year old dishwasher break down. Not cheap junk, all mid range major brand name merchandise.
Prior to that time, you could count on any of those purchases lasting 10, 15 years or more with little or no problems.