The Line: Consumer Prices Up 2.4% from a Year Ago

While today is Friday the 13th, we promise not to scare you in this edition of The Line.

Consumer Prices Up 2.4% From a Year Ago

The consumer price index rose 0.3% in February and was 2.4% higher than a year ago. Both these figures matched expectations, so this report is good news. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose just 0.2% last month and is 2.5% above last year’s comparable period, also in line with expectations. This data was collected before the war in Iran started, so it doesn’t include the recent spike in oil prices.

Perhaps the best news in the report was that the index for rent rose just 0.1% in February, its smallest monthly increase since January 2021. Housing has been responsible for keeping inflation elevated for the past few years, so if this trend continues, we could hit the Fed’s target soon, provided the war in Iran ends quickly.

While the report is good news, I don’t see it increasing the chances of Fed rate cuts any time soon. In fact, the futures markets don’t see any real likelihood of a cut until the second half of 2026.

How Much More Do Homeowners Earn than Renters?

The National Association of Realtors recently released an article that looks at the gap between the income of homeowners compared to renters. I’ll give you a moment to take a guess.

Based on data from 2024, they found that on a national level the median income of homeowners is about 85% higher than that of renters.

The data becomes more interesting when you look at specific markets. Most of us would expect the biggest gaps to be in themost expensive housing markets, but that was not the case. NAR found that some of the biggest income gaps were in college towns such as Iowa City (+195%) and Champaign-Urbana (+191%). They attribute these wide gaps to the fact that students make up a large portion of renters, which brings down the average renter income significantly.

For those wondering, some of the smallest gaps were found in retirement areas in Florida. This makes sense, as retirees tend to have lower incomes than people currently in the workforce.

Here are the gaps in some of the major metro areas:

• New York-New Jersey – 108%





• Washington D.C – 99%





• San Francisco – 88%





• Los Angeles – 83%





• You can check your area by visiting this website.