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.
six
1.3 million units
Holy fucking shit people
There’s six of them. I wonder how many of us there are.
Death sentence seems appropriate in this case.
🤨 i hope this is a joke
In eleven days this will be legal.
Hang the landlords
How do you keep them up there after the guillotine did it’s job?
They can hang by their toes
Yeah, the justice department can say whatever it wants.
Until there are DEVASTATING consequences for capitalist actions, they’ll continue to do them.
I believe there is approximately a 0% chance that this goes anywhere under the incoming administration, who holds nothing but contempt for the common man. Too bad people are too concerned with the fucking “cUlTuRe WaR” to care 🥲
They should have a criminal charge for crimes against the economy. They did this to us. They made it this way. There needs to be tangible justice.
Just gotta pay goyim
This was the point of the Reagan Revolution, the trickle down economics con, and the federalist society takeover that began under Reagan.
The owners spent decades removing accountability from the owners and any hope for accountability’s return under the current completely captured, warped, and owned constitutional framework.
There’s no voting our way out of this greed prison, as they own both major parties since Reagan. Want a just society? Move to a nation our government hasn’t yet coerced into becoming as bad as us, or help foment L style revolution for a new constitution and nation, this one is too captured for any rational hope.
Unless you think continuing to play this game will lead to a just society. Neoliberals are just the “good cop” in our illusion of choice. We have no vote on the shape or priorities of the economy we live in servitude of, only the social wedges the owners sow division amplifying with for profit media and captured political bully pulpits. “You hate them for being different! They hate you for being different! Fight! Don’t look up!”
I’m not optimistic that this will go anywhere, particularly during a Trump administration.
I don’t understand how landlords can expect people to make “3x the rent requirement” when rents are going up as fast as they are.
I’ve got a decent job (in a high cost of living area) and I’m barely meeting that requirement.
It makes saving extraordinarily difficult because not much cash flow remains after all the other post-tax expenses.
It also literally traps you in the rental market. Can’t save up a down payment, can’t afford to move. Years of mortgage payments just keeping my ass off the streets…
That’s the point. Keep you scrambling. Can’t stop grinding for the oligarchy and capitalism, or the next place you’ll be sleeping is the streets.
Okay here’s how the business model works. And before we start, know that these numbers are estimates with the barest of research, the basic interaction is the same though. There’s a TL;DR, but how we get to where they can make these demands is important.
I need X amount of money for operations. That’s desk staff, maintenance, back room staff, property tax, the remodel fund, and executives. Once I cover that amount I’m good to go. Now lets say I have 100 units to rent and about a million in yearly expenses. I need to cover about 90k a month. So at an average rent of 1k I need to fill 90/100 units just to cover costs. This is obviously a situation that makes apartment complexes heavily compete for residents. Most people are moving in the late summer and having a bad move in season can mean cut backs during the entire year which then causes a death spiral as you can’t properly compete for residents in the next move in season.
So landlords are incentivized to find a higher average rent somehow. In the above situation they are forced to waive many move in requirements. But if they can operate in a pricing cartel they can raise prices without worrying about being undercut. If they can get average rents to 2k a month then they only need 45 apartments out of 100 filled to meet costs. Now they can’t just do that, most states have a max rent raise cap of 10 percent per year for tenants already there. This is where that remodel budget comes in. On average they’re going to remodel an apartment every 6 years, (15 apartments a year) So in 6 years your rent can go from 1,000 to 1,771. Then they’re going to remodel that unit and raise the price to 2,500 instead of 1,948.
In the same time period inflation will generally account for 2 percent a year, (we’re not going to include once in a lifetime events here). At 2 percent a year, and being extremely generous to meet inflation with raises in employee pay, that million turns into something like 1.1 million. meaning my monthly expenses are now ~91,500. but instead of heavy competition for units I can now meet cost with half of my complex unfilled.
TL;DR Once an apartment complex reaches the point where half the complex can be unfilled and they can still meet cost they can ask almost whatever they want for people to move in. They throw gilding and marble into their office and say only the best people are allowed to live in their 600 sq foot apartments with the shitty combined washer/dryer, no dishwasher, and nearly no storage space. (extra storage is available for a fee, near your unit for a higher fee) It’s merely a matter of how much money they want to finance buying more properties to add to their ability to manipulate prices. And that’s why they can demand you make 9,000 dollars a month in markets like San Diego. and if that’s too onerous they can always waive that requirement. They can even lower prices on a per tenant basis if they’re in the right kind of situation that requires it. Without a tenant union nobody knows if everyone is paying the listed price. So if they have a listed price of 3,200 and they have 95% of the income they want then they can easily offer a lower price to get that last 5%, just using a few more units.
The real problem people are missing is how far this can go. And it’s bad, like really bad. If we look at company towns we can see people went into debt to their employer for housing and food. Now imagine I own an apartment building, and I own the shops and counter serve food places at the bottom of the building. Once rents are high enough I can offer the “don’t go homeless deal”. You sign your paycheck over to me, I give you a reasonable stipend from it and you get 3 meals, and an apartment. Don’t worry about your car payment, we offer shuttle service to your job, the bus station, and the airport. In return you don’t go into debt and you don’t go homeless. As long as you have a job anyways.
It would be nice if they get a fine of 1.3 million housing units.
That’s a lot of social housing. It would put an absolutely amazing dent in homelessness and would help a lot of low income families.
Make that 2.6 million as a base figure to go up from.
The fine should be the ill-gained profits PLUS a penalty. If you rob the bank, you don’t get to keep the money when you get caught. Why should it be any different when they rob us?
See, this is part of why I agree with things like the corporate death penalty. A company will not care how much it is fined, unless that fine forces it to close. Our justice structure when it comes to actually dealing with corporate entities is WOEFULLY behind the times, and has been artificially kept so for decades. Besides, fining a company that was scheming to keep rents artificially high brings no benefits, nor relief to the actual tenants who were forced out because of high rents.
Fining companies seems to just be a way of getting more money from them.
All six have Trump’s endorsement. Especially if they also refuse to rent to black people.
Years ago, when I lived in Boston, a realtor company mistakenly sent me a letter meant for my landlord. It said something like, “rentals are lucrative and prices keep rising! You should maximize your yearly lease price increases to make more money.”
The brokers get a full months rent fee in Boston just for showing the apartment, so this was really infuriating.
I feel like this is too late to have any impact. Should have done this a year ago. May have even helped with the Biden reelection campaign.
Oh no! Not accusations! Anyway.
And I’m sure those landlords will be all “BUT WE HAVE EXPENSES TOO! WE’RE PEOPLE TOO!” excuse.
has sued six major landlords and RealPage
I don’t see the six landlords listed anywhere. Anyone got the list?
The amended complaint alleges the landlords — Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC (Greystar); Blackstone’s LivCor LLC (LivCor); Camden Property Trust (Camden); Cushman & Wakefield Inc and Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC (Cushman); Willow Bridge Property Company LLC (Willow Bridge) and Cortland Management LLC (Cortland) — participated in an unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing, harming millions of American renters.
Thanks!
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