16 Million Apartments, One Algorithm
RealPage is a Texas-based software company that sells rent-pricing tools to landlords. Its algorithm draws on competitively sensitive information from over 16 million apartment units across the country. Competing landlords share their real-time pricing data with RealPage. The software processes it and tells each landlord what to charge.
16 million apartments. One algorithm. Competing landlords sharing private pricing data to coordinate rent increases.
The DOJ’s complaint alleged that RealPage’s software works by helping landlords “realize that if they all raise prices, or fail to drop them during a downturn, a rising tide raises all ships.” That is the textbook definition of price-fixing, executed by algorithm.
How It Worked
A landlord signs up for RealPage. They share their vacancy rates, lease terms, and rental prices with the platform. RealPage feeds that data into its algorithm alongside private data from competing landlords in the same market. The software generates a recommended rent price. The landlord follows it. So does every other landlord using the software.
The result is coordinated pricing without a handshake. No one sits in a room and agrees to raise rents. The algorithm does it for them. ProPublica’s investigation documented how the software was designed to keep rents rising even when vacancy rates increased, which a competitive market would normally prevent.
The Lawsuit and Settlement
The Justice Department, joined by eight state attorneys general from North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in 2024.
In November 2025, RealPage settled. The consent decree bars RealPage from using competitors’ real-time, nonpublic data to generate rent recommendations. The company must redesign the features that regulators said helped align pricing among rival landlords.
The Damage Already Done
52% of renters in America spend more than 30% of their income on housing, the federal definition of cost-burdened. 75% of families who qualify for federal rental assistance never receive it because the waitlists are full.
52% of American renters are cost-burdened. 75% who qualify for federal housing assistance never receive it.
RealPage’s algorithm did not create the housing crisis. But it systematized the price increases that made it worse. When competing landlords independently set prices, some undercut each other to fill vacancies. When they all follow the same algorithm, that competitive pressure disappears. Rents go up. They stay up. Renters pay.
The settlement prevents RealPage from repeating the specific mechanism the DOJ challenged. It does not undo the years of algorithmically coordinated rent increases that millions of tenants already paid.
Read more on the Housing hub and the tariff housing crisis brief.