In 1983 they stopped counting actually counting housing costs in the consumer price index (CPI) and started using something called owners’ equivalent rent.

The argument was that it gave a better picture of inflation, but in reality, it just gave a smaller picture of inflation.

Among other things, it would have had the Fed tightening sooner, because inflation would have been high enough in early 2004-2005.

Go to the link for the chart pr0n. Of particular interest is that core inflation would be negative right now if we used the old metric.