14 big landlords used software to collude on rent prices, DC lawsuit says

Same thing is happening in Seattle and likely everywhere else.

They should be launching lawsuits like this in every state. Hopefully if this suit goes well, it helps bring rents back to Earth from where they’ve skyrocketed (though not holding my breath).

This is the best summary I could come up with:

"RealPage and the defendant landlords illegally colluded to artificially raise rents by participating in a centralized, anticompetitive scheme, causing District residents to pay millions of dollars above fair market prices,” Schwalb said in a release tied to the complaint.

RealPage and the property management firms utilizing their software were the subject of a class-action suit filed in the Southern District of California in October 2022, alleging the "cartel" of artificially inflating prices.

A developer who worked on YieldStar's algorithm told ProPublica that rental leasing agents had "too much empathy" compared to the software's pricing systems.

Its creation of "work groups" of would-be rival landlords could also invite antitrust scrutiny, a former federal prosecutor told ProPublica.

In response to ProPublica's reporting, a RealPage representative said the firm used "aggregated market data from a variety of sources in a legally compliant manner."

A slide from an internal Greystar presentation cited in the complaint suggested that "at least 95 percent" of RealPage prices should be used, as "Discipline of using revenue management increased more consistent outcomes."

The original article contains 527 words, the summary contains 173 words. Saved 67%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

I have hope for my place, we have to renew our lease soon. My landlord is a decent guy and he has trouble with his email so I hope he couldn’t figure that software out lol

Oh gee. All this time, I thought it was coincidence that prices went up across the country in unison by identical amounts.