I don't actually know what realpage does, but in the spirit of HN, I am going to speculate anyway. at a high level, yes, there is a "market rate" for apartment

I don't actually know what realpage does, but in the spirit of HN, I am going to speculate anyway. at a high level, yes, there is a "market rate" for apartments that is driven by supply and demand. you won't have a lot of luck trying to let a 1 BR for double the median 1 BR rent in that neighborhood. but individual units are not fungible either; landlords can definitely charge more for units that have been more recently renovated, better layouts, nicer views, etc. plus or minus $50 on rent might not make much difference to a tenant, but having the data to make those little adjustments could matter a lot to a landlord with hundreds of units. this isn't something you can get just by scraping zillow.