[vlovich123]

Using RealPage software which is a Texas company that gathers information from landlords to then recommend prices that the landlords should then use.

So it’s not so much the company itself optimizing based on its own data but the argument goes, at least per the antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, that the landlords are all colluding together via an intermediary.

[davidw]

If they are really good at colluding, why are prices higher in LA than in Houston?

I think RealPage and similar systems probably add a few percentage points to rents - and if you consider how much money that is across 1000's of renters, it's worth suing them over.

But supply and demand are still the gorilla in the room.

[vlovich123]

For one, LA is generally a more wealthy area which means it can support higher rents. For another, it depends on the utilization rate of the software in a locale. And finally, let’s say it raises rents by 10% — if rents started out higher in LA they would remain higher.

I really don’t understand your question.

Yes supply and demand are the gorillas, but pricing collusion like this has always generally been illegal regardless of the size of the effect so I don’t understand your point.

[davidw]

The point is that high rents are caused by an imbalance of supply and demand.

[6510]

You can ask as much as people are able to pay. You need a very large abundance for prices to drop and then they drop like a brick.

[davidw]

Rents are going down in places that have built more, lead by Austin, TX:

https://www.threads.net/@davidnwelton/post/C_T1ADRyAMi?xmt=A...

Markets are competitive, even with RealPage, so you can't really just "ask as much as people will pay", just like you can't at the grocery store either.