Mar 17 -- The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) invites public comments to OMB by April 15, 2022 on its proposal to continue the Consumer Price Index (CPI) Housing Survey.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is an index compiled by the U.S. Government that is designed to measure changes in the purchasing power of the consumer's dollar. The CPI is a measure of the average change in prices over time in a market basket of goods and services. It is calculated monthly for two population groups, one consisting of all urban consumers (CPI-U), and the other consisting of urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W). The CPI-U represents the buying habits of about 93 percent of the population of the United States, while the CPI-W represents about 29 percent of that group.
The universe for the CPI Housing Survey consists of all urban rental-housing units used as primary residences. The number of year-round rental-housing units in the universe is approximately 45 million units. The Rent index measures changes in rents paid by tenants and received by landlords adjusted for changes in quality. The Owners’ Equivalent Rent index (OER) measures the change in the implicit rent for owner-occupied housing. The implicit rent is the amount the homeowner would pay to rent, or earn from renting his/her home in a competitive market. It is for the construction of these indexes that a sample is selected and information gathered. The current sample based on the 2010 Census uses approximately 8,600 segments with five units per segment, or, 43,000 rental units in 75 PSUs.
Shelter accounts for 33.3% of the CPI’s Relative Importance. Included in Shelter is Rent of primary residence (7.9% relative importance) and Owners’ equivalent rent of residences (24.3% relative importance).
CPI Housing Survey submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202110-1220-002 Click IC List for survey instrument, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments on this site.
FR notice:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-05493
For AEA members wishing to submit comments to OMB, the AEA Committee on Economic Statistics offers "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806
