[SoftTalker]

> If you're a landlord, you can just force a $500/m increase on your tenants. Done.

Only if there is a tight supply of housing, otherwise another landlord will accept a lower rent rather than have an empty unit.

The problem with rent is one of supply, not greedy landlords. Ask your local planning commission why they aren't approving more housing developments.

[busterarm]

There doesn't even need to be a tight supply of housing...just a predominance of landlords using the same crooked software.

https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-r...

[sottol]

I've found that with housing, prices are often set "at the margins". If even one landlord is asking $4k for an 800sqft 2BR, it might sit unrented for a while but other landlords will notice and nudge their prices of similar units towards that. This definitely happens faster in tight markets.

Additionally, institutional investors have bought up around 5% of the SFH market so far, some estimates say they will own up to 40% by 2030. [1]

I would not be surprised if they already have significant pricing (signaling-)power and can already influence prices with just their 5% ownership, eg only Blackrock by itself.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/21/how-wall-street-bought-singl...

[underlipton]

Landlords will happily leave a unit open if the lost revenue is offset by higher rents on the filled units, particularly if filling the open unit would require renovation. This is easier when property owners collude to raise and maintain high prices (which they have been doing) and when they can offer superficial discounts that disappear upon lease renewal (which is common practice).