Rent Inflation in St. Joseph County, Indiana, 1974-1978

The experimental housing allowance program bases its payments to participants partly on the marketwide "standard cost of adequate housing." The schedule of standard costs has been revised several times to compensate for inflation. This Note's analysis of rent inflation in St. Joseph County provides the empirical basis for the fourth such revision since the program began early in 1975. The study's purposes were to estimate how much gross rents in St. Joseph County changed between November 1974 and July 1978 and to determine whether the program itself contributed significantly to rent inflation. Preliminary estimates from this study were used to adjust benefit levels for program participants in January 1980; the final estimates are reported here and compared with the preliminary ones. The study also concludes that raising allowance entitlements to compensate for past inflation is unlikely to cause further rent inflation.