Everyday Economics: Falling gas prices helped keep consumers spending

Inflation fell more than expected in June. That gave consumers some breathing room, and they kept spending – even if they became more selective about where their money went.Homebuilders were less optimistic.Beneath a volatile monthly increase in total housing starts, single-family construction continued to decline. Multifamily construction may be approaching a bottom, but overall homebuilding has fallen back toward its pre-pandemic pace – not nearly enough for a country with a 4.7 million-home housing deficit.Those three reports told a fairly consistent story about the economy.Falling prices helped consumers maintain their spending. Households did not retreat, but neither did demand suddenly surge. And while consumer spending remained resilient, high interest rates, construction costs and public-policy barriers continued to discourage builders from producing enough new housing.Falling prices helped consumers keep spendingHeadline consumer prices fell 0.4% from May to June, the largest monthly decline since April 2020. Core prices, which exclude...