Rent measurement determines 32 percent of the CPI. Accurate rent measurement is
therefore essential for accurate inflation measurement, but the CPI rent index often differs
from alternative rent inflation measures. Using repeat-rent inflation measures created from
CPI microdata, we show that this discrepancy is largely explained by differences in rent
growth for new tenants relative to all tenants. New-tenant rent inflation provides information
about future all-tenant rent inflation, but the use of new-tenant rents is contraindicated in a …

The BLS Housing Survey uses a multistage sampling design meant to draw a sample
representative of rental expenditure. 1 The first stage selects large geographic areas called
“primary sampling units”(PSUs). PSU definitions now match metropolitan and micropolitan
statistical areas. Before the BLS redesigned its geographic sample in 2018, PSUs had been
modified metropolitan statistical areas and groups of counties with smaller towns (Paben et
al. 2016). Each PSU is subdivided into segments, which become the fundamental units for …