Updated Feb. 13 with the latest consumer price index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the latest Zillow data for rental trends in January. Annual rental price growth is still way below pre-pandemic averages, according to the latest rental data from Zillow, the real estate website, for January 2024. Rent prices are now 29.4% higher than they were before the pandemic, but rental growth seems to have slowed from the major spikes of 2021. In January, rents are 3.4% higher than at the same time last year. The average growth in 2018 and 2019 was 4.1%. The reasons…