The U.S. Justice Department is suing several large landlords for allegedly coordinating to keep Americans’ rents high.

Summary

The U.S. Justice Department, joined by 10 states, has sued six major landlords and RealPage, a company behind a rent-setting algorithm, accusing them of colluding to keep rents high by sharing sensitive pricing data and avoiding competition.

The landlords, operating over 1.3 million units, allegedly used RealPage’s algorithm and coordination to align rents, exacerbating the housing crisis.

One landlord has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Critics argue this scheme worsens affordability issues for renters, who already face record rent burdens amid a strained housing market.

  • @marron12
    1•11 hours ago

    I understand that, but at some point they will hit a number where people in the area can’t afford the 1st month (or more) down or even monthly payments.

    I lived in a place where that happened. There were very obvious changes as the rent kept going up. (I stayed because everywhere else was going up just as much.)

    • Long-term tenants moved out.
    • A lot more one bedrooms had roommates.
    • People had less furniture. Sometimes just a mattress on the floor and a plastic chair.
    • A lot more three-day notices and eviction notices on people’s doors.
    • Some apartments turned into Airbnbs.
    • One apartment turned, very not surreptitiously, into a “massage” place.
    • More and more units stayed empty for months.

    None of that stopped the rent from going up. If anything, it went up faster.

    • @NatakuNox
      1•4 hours ago

      People think too small when it comes to stuff like this. One individual land lord company doing this isn’t a big deal. But when you scale that up to a national level? We’re talking about millions of homes going empty, misused, and siphoned off for only greed.