Moving the Goal Post: The Fed Said “Wait and See”

The Fed met and you know what that means. It’s time to dive into their decision and how that will affect us. 

While rates are still elevated, they didn’t cut or raise (which is good!) although inflation is going down. What they did do was adjust and increase the goal post to achieve the 2% inflation sooner than later. The Fed Funds Rate is sitting at 5.5% and 5.75% with 9 members wanting 2 more rate hikes. In my opinion, this is something I don’t think is necessary. While we want to get to this point eventually, they’ve been known to go too far too fast, causing all of us a headache. It’s rumored that they will cut rates by the end of the year…but only time will tell. 

So About Shelter Cost… 

We’re currently sitting at about 43% of the core reading inflation. Remember, the core reading inflation excludes energy and food and only looks at what can be controlled. Looking at the core PCE, we can see that things are getting better – it just takes time. 

Renters are about to get the upper hand. By looking at the chart below, we can see that within the past 12 months, there are some cases of rent actually going down.