> Rent gets raised by $500 because someone else would actually pay that much. In many cases, rent gets raised by $500 for the unit to be vacant so the landlord

> Rent gets raised by $500 because someone else would actually pay that much. In many cases, rent gets raised by $500 for the unit to be vacant so the landlord can claim to have $500 more in revenue per month (and get loans on that). In some parts of the country - you have >50% of units in large population centers owned and/or operated by just a few companies. Like KSA reducing oil supply by 10% to increase prices 5% - sometimes strange things make sense when you have a cartel. In SF, I had many friends have their rent raised by 10% - move out - the unit sit vacant for 6 months, and then the price reduced back to what it was and still be vacant. I wouldn't assume any time landlords are raising prices - it's because they had a bidding war on the unit and someone's paying more.