[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.