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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

#81

Post by edmundsauto »

themagician wrote: post #45
joenot443 wrote: post #5

> “As recently reported, software offered by RealPage uses 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” That’s the meat of it, really. Someone more knowledgeable can speak more confidently, but I’d be pretty surpri…

I can speak about how it actually works, because I live in a building that uses this and has used it since I moved about 2-3 years ago… although it seems like they just recently paused using it (I got my renewal a few days ago). Every day (or every week or month, up to the property) the rent gets recomputed for every unit for whatever terms you want to offer. My building offers 7, 8, 9, 11, 13 and 14 month terms at t…

I've always wondered why no 12 month leases. I think it's to avoid seasonally stacking renewals, which would depress prices? (Think "college students moving in each fall")

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

#82

Post by _huayra_ »

cheriot wrote: post #30

> 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 confidenti…

>This is identical to how employers share salary information.

Friendly reminder to all: you can opt out of most of this.

Most employers subscribe to The Work Number, but you can opt out of your data being shared here: https://employees.theworknumber.com/employee-data-freeze

Note you will still see your current employer submitting data if you log in, but it's not visible to other employers who participate.

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

#83

Post by babelfish »

grecy wrote: post #51
rtpg wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hotels and flights are, granted, less essential than a place to live. Remember, you _have to live somewhere_. That is a functional difference compared to other "market-based" things (never mind that "market-based solutions" are a lot less workable when atomicity is lost. Yeah yeah, regulations making things harder to build, I think more should be built! But there are real, "wanted" things in the way of just having ma…

> Remember, you _have to live somewhere_. You also _have_ to get education, healthcare and a whole lot more than nobody is doing anything about making any kind of affordable.

They should be.

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

#84

Post by larsiusprime »

grecy wrote: post #51
rtpg wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hotels and flights are, granted, less essential than a place to live. Remember, you _have to live somewhere_. That is a functional difference compared to other "market-based" things (never mind that "market-based solutions" are a lot less workable when atomicity is lost. Yeah yeah, regulations making things harder to build, I think more should be built! But there are real, "wanted" things in the way of just having ma…

> Remember, you _have to live somewhere_. You also _have_ to get education, healthcare and a whole lot more than nobody is doing anything about making any kind of affordable.

You actually don't have to get an education and healthcare, although you ideally really should. But you can't opt out of physically existing in a location so long as you're still alive. And I've seen compelling evidence that inflation in healthcare and education is at least partially downstream of the housing crisis.

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

#85

Post by bmorton »

treeman79 wrote: post #38
chatmasta wrote: post #2

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

A Black rock house company (invintation homes)lied repeatedly about weird smells in my house. whole family has permanent injuries from it.

It's only smellz. It's ok.

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

#86

Post by telotortium »

edmundsauto wrote: post #81
themagician wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can speak about how it actually works, because I live in a building that uses this and has used it since I moved about 2-3 years ago… although it seems like they just recently paused using it (I got my renewal a few days ago). Every day (or every week or month, up to the property) the rent gets recomputed for every unit for whatever terms you want to offer. My building offers 7, 8, 9, 11, 13 and 14 month terms at t…

I've always wondered why no 12 month leases. I think it's to avoid seasonally stacking renewals, which would depress prices? (Think "college students moving in each fall")

I think in this case, it may be because it's December and they don't want to have to rent it out in this season next year? I rented an apartment in December once (moving for work), and I might have gotten a better price due to that.

Also good to stagger lease expirations so not everyone is moving in and out at the same time.

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

#87

Post by capableweb »

larsiusprime wrote: post #84
grecy wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remember, you _have to live somewhere_. You also _have_ to get education, healthcare and a whole lot more than nobody is doing anything about making any kind of affordable.

You actually don't have to get an education and healthcare, although you ideally really should . But you can't opt out of physically existing in a location so long as you're still alive. And I've seen compelling evidence that inflation in healthcare and education is at least partially downstream of the housing crisis.

In that same vein, you don't really have to have a home, although you really should. With that type of thinking, the only thing you really really require to live is air, food and water, anything besides that you don't really require but is merely optional. You can live outside in a tent or under a couple of moving boxes.

Myself I'd say that both having a roof over your head, education, healthcare and a bunch of other stuff is a human right, but I digress.

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

#88

Post by Aunche »

cheriot wrote: post #30

> 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 confidenti…

> 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.

This is definitely nonsense grandstanding. I have no idea what they're even trying to say here. The program may also induce landlords to decrease rents as recommended by the algorithm, putting downward pressure on prices and increasing the availability of affordable apartments.

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

#89

Post by JumpCrisscross »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #63
woodruffw wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What comparison between hotels and flights is being missed? I don't know as much about hotel pricing, but my understanding of flight pricing is that it's done with buckets of fare classes: prices are set in buckets, and they only go up (or down) as each bucket is exhausted (or re-opened, if a ticket is canceled). I'm sure it's more complicated than that these days, but I don't think it's directly comparable to the re…

Flight prices are adjusted far more frequently than rental properties. Just get updates on a tracked flight ~6 months from now and watch it change weekly or even daily.

> Flight prices are adjusted far more frequently than rental properties

To my knowledge, airline pricing algorithms are fiercely guarded and competitive. Hotels, less so, but it's a fragmented space. RealPage, in contrast, is a single algorithm coordinating pricing for large sections of the market.

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

#90

Post by vwoolf »

cheriot wrote: post #30

> 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 confidenti…

Someone should do something really wild and tell Congress about how local municipalities restrict the supply of housing, which raises prices. This allows owners of said real estate to extract very high rents, while limiting effective competition, harming consumers. It's wild!

The DoJ should start with an antitrust investigation of Atherton.

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