The US economy has done far better over the past few years than many would have expected, particularly given the multiple headwinds from the pandemic, US-China decoupling, the war in Ukraine and general political chaos in Washington.

The country has enjoyed an almost immaculate economic cooling, along with a still-robust jobs market and good overall gross domestic product growth. Particularly when compared with other countries, the US economy looks as good as it could be right now. However, there is one conspicuous fly in the ointment — housing.

You can see it in last week’s consumer price index numbers, which showed inflation to be a bit higher than was forecast. The main culprit, aside from ever-volatile food and oil prices, was housing. The shelter index portion of the CPI was up 7.2 per cent over the past year, accounting for more than 70 per cent of the total increase in all items, aside from food and fuel.