They included some of the nation’s largest landlords, such as Greystar, Lincoln Property Company, Equity Residential, Mid-America Apartment Communities and FPI Management — which together manage hundreds of thousands of apartments.
Four of the five renters named in the suit were Greystar tenants. A fifth rented from Security Properties. Their apartments were located in San Diego, San Francisco and two Washington state cities, Redmond and Everett.
The lawsuit accused the property managers and RealPage of forming “a cartel to artificially inflate the price of and artificially decrease the supply and output of multifamily residential real estate leases from competitive levels.”
RealPage’s software uses an algorithm to churn through a trove of data each night to suggest daily prices for available rental units. The software uses not only information about the apartment being priced and the property where it is located, but also private data on what nearby competitors are charging in rents. The software considers actual rents paid to those rivals — not just what they are advertising, the company told ProPublica.
— Read on www.propublica.org/article/realpage-accused-of-collusion-in-new-lawsuit
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