The cost of real property aren’t included because that is considered a capital investment in the USA BLS numbers. A house is not an item that is consumed, since

The cost of real property aren’t included because that is considered a capital investment in the USA BLS numbers. A house is not an item that is consumed, since you can generally sell it for more when you’re done. It would be like including the cost of stocks and bonds in inflation. The cost of housing, not houses, is the biggest single component of the CPI. That means that the cost of rent, or rent equivalent, is very much factored in. We very much do have headlines about the crazy costs of houses. But housing costs, that is the price to consume one month of housing service (aka rent) are a different thing.