Inflation and Housing

The pace of inflation is definitely slowing in the U.S. The latest federal numbers prove it. But inflation is still historically high and that is still due to housing costs. Maybe take a break from the bad news, though, and read up on the boom in competitive socializing. It’s a real bright spot in retail.

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— Tom Acitelli, Co-Deputy Editor

As Inflation Rate Slows Again, Housing Still Biggest Driver

Consumer prices rose 4 percent in May compared to the same time last year in the smallest annual increase in two years, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report. While housing costs remained the biggest driver of higher prices for U.S. consumers, apartment rent growth has begun to cool nationwide and could help further ease inflation this year, The Wall Street Journal reported. The cost of all U.S. goods and services rose 0.1 percent monthly in May, slower than its 0.4 percent increase from March to April, according to the BLS’s Consumer Price Index. While overall costs rose less than economists expected, housing represented the “largest contributor” to higher prices, followed by more expensive used cars and trucks.

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Competitive Socializing Proves a Boon for Retailers Post-Pandemic

Golf, soccer, ax throwing, pickleball, cricket, speakeasies, even baseball. If it involves a group, boasts Instagrammable backgrounds and can be tweaked for more fun, food and beverage spending, then it’s being leveraged as a potential entertainment destination — and a new kind of real estate anchor. “These venues are really creating more vibrancy for shopping centers that are starting to feel a little dated and are seeking out what that next experience should be,” said Alanna Loeffler, managing director of business strategy at Cushman & Wakefield. Birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese pizza parlors and corporate outings at Dave & Buster’s have been staples for decades, and the experience economy concept gained exposure back in the ’90s when millennials were just kids. But the confluence of a new real estate landscape, interactive technology and entertainment trends — the millennials have grown up, gotten office jobs and moved to the suburbs, and high-density, multifamily urbanization has hit suburban markets across the country — has opened lots of physical and cultural space for new social concepts.

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