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The Software That Raised Your Rent
A company called RealPage sold rent-pricing software to 31,700 landlords managing 16 million apartments. The software pooled nonpublic data from competing properties, then told each landlord what to charge. Properties using it paid an average of $0.23 more per square foot monthly than comparable units without it. RealPage told prospective clients its tool could help them “outperform the market 3% to 7%”.
The White House estimated algorithmic pricing cost renters an average of $70 per month in buildings that used the software. That is $840 a year extracted not by market forces but by coordinated price-setting.
“RealPage’s software effectuated an agreement among landlords to eliminate competition by sharing sensitive information and coordinating rental housing prices.” — DOJ complaint, August 2024
The Settlement Falls Short
In November 2025, the DOJ filed a proposed consent decree with RealPage. The company admitted no liability. The terms restrict RealPage from using data less than 12 months old and from analyzing geographies narrower than a state. A court-appointed monitor will oversee compliance.
But the settlement does not ban algorithmic pricing tools. RealPage can still sell rent-recommendation software. It just has to use older data and broader geographic inputs. The landlords who used the software, including Greystar and Blackstone-owned LivCor, settled separately with limited penalties.
Where Corporate Landlords Dominate
Nationally, institutional investors own roughly 3% of single-family rentals. But that number hides what is happening in specific metros. A GAO report found extreme concentration in the Southeast:
| Metro Area | Institutional Investor Share of Single-Family Rentals |
|---|---|
| Atlanta, Georgia | 25% |
| Jacksonville, Florida | 21% |
| Charlotte, North Carolina | 18% |
| Tampa, Florida | 15% |
| National average | 3% |
In metro Atlanta, investors now own 30% of single-family rental homes. Three companies alone control nearly 19,000 homes there. These are not small landlords responding to local conditions. They are national firms running centralized pricing operations.
The NYU Furman Center found that corporate owners raise asking rents after purchase while non-corporate landlords do not. Institutional investors also file more evictions and disproportionately target neighborhoods with declining incomes and high minority populations.
States Are Moving Faster Than the Feds
Two states have already banned algorithmic rent-pricing. California’s AB 325, effective January 2026, made it unlawful to use or distribute AI pricing technology in restraint of trade. New York amended the Donnelly Act to ban algorithms from setting rental prices, effective December 2025.
RealPage responded by suing New York, arguing the ban violates the First Amendment. Cities including San Francisco, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Diego, and Seattle have passed their own bans. Bills are pending in Washington, Colorado, New Jersey, Illinois, and Michigan.
What You Can Do
- Write your representatives on Resistbot and ask them to co-sponsor legislation banning algorithmic rent coordination at the federal level.
- Check whether your state has a pending bill restricting algorithmic pricing. If it does, call your state legislators and tell them to vote yes. If it does not, ask them why.
- File a complaint with your state attorney general if your landlord uses RealPage or similar software. Several AGs, including California’s, have pursued enforcement actions.
- Look up your landlord’s corporate ownership. If a private equity firm or REIT owns your building, document rent increases and share them with local tenant organizations.
The DOJ settlement sends a message that algorithmic collusion has a price, but that price is a consent decree with no admission of guilt and no ban on the underlying software. States and cities are filling the gap the federal government left open.
This is part of the broader housing affordability crisis driven by tariffs on building materials, shrinking federal investment, and corporate consolidation of the rental market. The algorithm is one tool. The system behind it is the real problem.