Stupid econ question:

So it looks like a lot of remaining inflation is rent. In that case, wouldn't you want to lower rates to increase home-building and home-ownership in order to reduce rent pricing?

@ZachWeinersmith no. (1) the rent in CPI includes owner-equivalent rent, so lower interest rates -> higher home prices -> higher “rent” component of CPI. (2) interest rates don’t just affect one sector, so even if it did lower rent due to more construction, it would increase inflation in other sectors. If you want to target just rent, you need to do that via regulation (reduce zoning restrictions, reduce tariffs on construction materials, don’t subsidize demand, etc.)