The current rent target is a hardcoded ACS-derived total uprated by CPI. If we keep rent as a calibration anchor, we should at least use a direct current-year official aggregate rather than uprating a stale benchmark.
Why the current target is weak:
- It is not administrative.
- The current value is an uprated aggregate rather than a direct current-year measurement.
- ACS remains the official broad rent source, but if we use it, we should use the current-year ACS aggregate gross rent directly.
Proposed change:
- Replace the current hardcoded uprated total with a direct current-year ACS aggregate gross rent benchmark.
- If we want to move toward an admin-first target set, demote
rent from hard calibration entirely, because there is no clean administrative total for national rent paid.
Primary sources:
The current
renttarget is a hardcoded ACS-derived total uprated by CPI. If we keep rent as a calibration anchor, we should at least use a direct current-year official aggregate rather than uprating a stale benchmark.Why the current target is weak:
Proposed change:
rentfrom hard calibration entirely, because there is no clean administrative total for national rent paid.Primary sources: