CPI

Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the latest consumer prices data and the good news is that inflation has declined considerably from last year’s historic peak of 8.5%. The May-to-May price data for our region show an annual percentage change of only 3.2% and that suggests a more moderate maximum allowable annual rent increase for Beverly Hills rent-stabilized households starting in July. That is unless our councilmembers decide to allow landlords significantly greater than 3.2% so they can recoup rent increases delayed by the moratorium.

Listen to the news lately and you can’t miss the chatter about higher inflation. “Continuing supply chain disruptions, low inventories, and increasing labor costs have contributed to upward pricing pressures in recent weeks,” said the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco last week. Indeed consumer prices for the Los Angeles-Long Beach were up 3.6% in April over a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. When the fed releases the May-to-May figures next month we will all know how large a rent increase Beverly Hills tenants will pay this year.