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Key Takeaways
- Recent inflation data improved, but Fed officials want to see more evidence that price pressures are easing, Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Bostic said at an event in Florida Thursday.
- Despite some progress on overall inflation, housing affordability is still a major concern, he said.
- Bostic said rising insurance costs would need to be fixed in a way that doesn’t hurt the consumer.
After several months of facing increasing price pressures, the latest inflation data released this week was a welcome piece of good news, even for the pressured housing market, Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Raphael Bostic told a Florida audience Thursday.
“Pretty much any way you want to cut it, we saw inflation come in lower,” Bostic said of yesterday’s release of the Consumer Price Index, which broke a streak of elevated inflation readings in 2024.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April showed that prices were growing more slowly on a year-over-year basis, down slightly from last month to come in at 3.4%. Officials want inflation to be closer to their annual goal of 2%.
Given that, officials need to see further improvement in inflation before moving to bring down interest rates, he said.
Bostic’s remarks come as Federal Reserve officials have downplayed expectations for interest rate cuts in 2024. In April, Bostic said the disappointing inflation data in the first quarter prompted him to pull back his headland for the number of interest rate cuts this year from two to only one.
Despite April Dip, Housing Costs Are Still Too High, Bostic Said
Bostic pointed to shelter costs, which though still high, saw their slowest increases since 2021. But even though costs were rising, Bostic told the audience at an event hosted by the Jacksonville Business Journal that housing costs remain a major problem for inflation, especially in Florida.
“Florida is a hot spot of unaffordability in ways that are concerning,” Bostic said. “People at various price points don’t have units to buy.”
Another issue pressuring housing prices in Florida and across the nation is increasing insurance costs, which are being driven up by more damage payouts, Bostic said. Eventually, insurers and public officials will have to find a solution that works for “regular people,” he said.