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US reps urge DOJ to investigate anticompetitive conduct affecting apartment rent

klobuchar.senate.gov

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Re: US reps urge DOJ to investigate anticompetitive conduct affecting apartment rent

#21

Post by jmyeet »

Price controls are ineffective long term but can be a useful stopgap measure in the short term. The only solution to this is dealing with supplyside issues, notably the artificial constraints on housing supply. This is longer term.So the pricing algorithms are a natural reaction to market forces. Here are some more important things you can do in the short term to increase supply:

1. Outlaw (at the local and state level) and punitively tax (at the Federal level) short-term rentals (eg AirBnB/VRBO). The evidence that these reduce the supply of rental units is undeniable. It's not even capital intensive as people will rent units where the lease allows them to sublet short-term;

2. Start punitively taxing second homes;

3. Punitively tax ultra-luxury housing supply.

In the longer term the government should temper these market forces by creating an alternative source for housing by buying and building housing units that are rented to people on reasonable terms.

Re: US reps urge DOJ to investigate anticompetitive conduct affecting apartment rent

#23

Post by psychlops »

gonzo41 wrote: post #14
vkou wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really a cartel, or is it just landlords squeezing every penny that they can? With there being a lot of pennies to squeeze due to a double-whammy of supply shortages, and growth in wages for the upper 30% of society? If people didn't have spare money, rents wouldn't be growing (As nobody would be able to pay), and if vacancies were higher, landlords would have to accept lowball offers.

This is not true. I encourage you to listen to this two part pod cast about this issue. Robert Evans goes into depth about this. Part one https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236... Part Two https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236...

I literally couldn't make it through the noise to find signal. Is there a specific slot of time to start?

Re: US reps urge DOJ to investigate anticompetitive conduct affecting apartment rent

#25

Post by UncleOxidant »

jmyeet wrote: post #21

Price controls are ineffective long term but can be a useful stopgap measure in the short term. The only solution to this is dealing with supplyside issues, notably the artificial constraints on housing supply. This is longer term.So the pricing algorithms are a natural reaction to market forces. Here are some more important things you can do in the short term to increase supply: 1. Outlaw (at the local and state lev…

> 2. Start punitively taxing second homes;

I'm assuming you mean punitively tax 2nd homes that aren't being rented out?

Re: US reps urge DOJ to investigate anticompetitive conduct affecting apartment rent

#26

Post by epistasis »

obnauticus wrote: post #3
chatmasta wrote: post #2

I was disappointed to see this was not about Blackrock and other private equity groups.

These anti-competitive pricing models seem to be the primary motivation for a large scale landlord wanting to invest in the first place. So it sort-of is?

No, they want to invest because zoning is being used to suppress competition, not because of the software.

This is openly stated in their investment prospectuses, it's not a secret.

Re: US reps urge DOJ to investigate anticompetitive conduct affecting apartment rent

#28

Post by Forgeties79 »

tptacek wrote: post #22
chatmasta wrote: post #2

I was disappointed to see this was not about Blackrock and other private equity groups.

PE firms own only an infinitesimal fraction of all available housing.

You’re not wrong but it’s a little more complicated than that.

https://www.marketplace.org/2022/03/02/how-private-equity-is...

Re: US reps urge DOJ to investigate anticompetitive conduct affecting apartment rent

#29

Post by thriftwy »

jmyeet wrote: post #21

Price controls are ineffective long term but can be a useful stopgap measure in the short term. The only solution to this is dealing with supplyside issues, notably the artificial constraints on housing supply. This is longer term.So the pricing algorithms are a natural reaction to market forces. Here are some more important things you can do in the short term to increase supply: 1. Outlaw (at the local and state lev…

If you tax second homes, people will not buy these, not put them out for rent, and developers will build fewer real estate.

This may only benefit if you have already borked your real estate market so that virtually nothing gets built anyway.

Re: US reps urge DOJ to investigate anticompetitive conduct affecting apartment rent

#30

Post by cheriot »

> pricing algorithms to adjust prices on vacant apartments in real time… The program may also induce landlords to charge the rents recommended by the algorithm, putting upward pressure on prices and decreasing the availability of affordable apartments.

Wait until she hears about hotels and flights.

> The software analyzes non-public data that RealPage gathers from its property management clients, including confidential information on the rents charged by competing property managers, data it also makes available to its subscribers in aggregated, anonymized form. The program may also induce landlords to charge the rents recommended by the algorithm, putting upward pressure on prices

This is identical to how employers share salary information.

Either this is nonsense grandstanding (most likely) or the beginning of a sea change in consumer protection. I won't hold my breath.

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