Same in Portland. A house down the street was purchased for 180k 2 years ago and recently sold for 520k. And that isn't some outlier. It seems all anyone wants to talk about is how quickly home prices have inflated.
Rents are included in cpi, but home prices aren't. Now, of course they are correlated, but that's certainly one of the arguments against using cpi.
edit: answered my own question, the bureau of labor statistics has more numbers than you can shake a stick at.
Even if everything you can buy suddenly got 10% cheaper, the houses in those areas would immediately increase back to the old level because the prices is driven by a high demand relative to supply.
Inflation is generalized increased of nominal costs, not particular to an asset, nor in 'real terms' which is what is happening here.
Our house in the not-super-desirable area of NE Portland was worth ~$265k when we looked at the data in late February/March of this year (strong data supporting that number). When we finally put it on the market in the beginning of May, it sold in 1 day, with multiple offers, for a sales price of $312k.
Yes, that's a $47k increase in value in just over 2 months. When spring hit, real estate prices went bonkers in Portland this year. Also, we bought the house for $160k ~five years ago.
Purchase price was $145k. Sale price (after only 16 months) was $190k.
We used to proceeds from that sale to buy a two-bedroom house for my parents move into for their retirement. Paid $250k last October; recent sales in the neighborhood suggest it's worth $310-325k now.
So yeah, agreed re: bonkers Portland housing price inflation.
Inflation is generalized increase in prices. Im sure beers and miso-fries have barely changed prices if at all.