> It's hard to adjust for increases in housing costs by buying cheaper housing I think this is mostly not true? You can adjust for housing becoming more expen

> It's hard to adjust for increases in housing costs by buying cheaper housing I think this is mostly not true? You can adjust for housing becoming more expensive by changing your consumption patterns, just as you describe with food. It's still rough, but unless your family is living in single room in a shared unit (or, if you're single, sharing a room) there are choices between "consume housing at your current level" and "be homeless". The CPI-U table has housing as 37% of the overall basket: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm What do you think it should be?