New Orleans        We’ve worried with this problem in the past, but it seems to be getting worse.  The Washington Post has stirred the pot again with a series of maps, that weren’t in the print edition, but that powerfully flesh out the issue of RealPage and others contracting with big landlords to use algorithms to automatically adjust, and invariably increase, rents for tenants.  The Justice Department earlier sued RealPage on antitrust grounds, as did Arizona and DC, alleging that they were colluding with landlords to fix prices and reduce competition.  More recently, the suit has been expanded “to six large landlords, which it says operate in 43 states and D.C.”

RealPage and the companies deny all, but as the Post reported:

The lawsuits indicate that use of RealPage’s software is widespread: They list more than 50 property management companies, including some of the largest in the country, as customers of at least one of three RealPage rent-recommending programs.  Nationwide, the named companies manage at least 12 percent of all multifamily housing units, a Post analysis found, often concentrated in areas that have seen recent building booms. Of units built since 2020, more than 70 percent are managed by alleged clients of RealPage’s rent-setting software.

Something like this doesn’t allow tenants room to negotiate a fair rent, when they are not dealing with an agent or landlord, but the computer.

The metropolitan areas where new construction and this kind of rent setting and rent seeking market concentration is happening include the Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth metros in Texas, as well as several in North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee in addition to Colorado Springs and Gainesville, Florida, all of which have companies using the algorithms in 28% or more of the available units under management.  In DC, where one of the first suits was filed against this practice, about one-quarter are in this fix.   All of which makes the maps scary, because these situations tend to be concentrated in one square block after another.  If a tenant wants or needs to live in these areas, their rents are chained to these companies.  RealPage claims that its clients experience a 2 to 5% bump over the market by using their software.  In some cases, tenants have seen rents soar by 25% in a one-year period, which is crazy and unsustainable.

It’s good that the governments have sued this outfit, but, even if successful, relief is a long time away with rents soaring in the meantime amid denials by the companies and inevitable appeals.  What can a tenant do when it’s one against management and their backroom computer triggers?  Tenants are at a huge disadvantage in these situations.  They can elect to move elsewhere, though virtually everywhere there is a mismatch between affordable housing and tenants that need good, safe housing within their budgets.  It seems like a tenants’ union is a must for tenants to have a chance in these properties.  Without a collective solution, tenants will have no protection either now or in the future.