10 ms·

What are you on about? When has price fixing put a downward pressure on the price? With price fixing, it's as though all the landlords in on the fixing are oper

What are you on about? When has price fixing put a downward pressure on the price? With price fixing, it's as though all the landlords in on the fixing are operating as a single business, effectively becoming a monopoly - it's not like potential tenants can pick a cheaper or a more expensive apartment, since the price is roughly the same across all of them anyway - so market forces can't really adjust prices.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
csomar 3y ago
See. This doesn't make economic sense. In a monopoly, there is a single accounting source. That's not the case in a "price fixed market by multiple players". If I have a single house, it might make sense not to rent it to increase the rent price across board for all landlords. But it makes more sense to rent it at a lower price, for the individual landlord, than let it sit empty. Unless the whole market is owned by a few big corporations instead of small landlords who are using their second home as retirement or extra income. Oh wait...
HDThoreaun 3y ago
This only works if realpage is causing landlords to leave units vacant. Otherwise the market clearing prices don't change since supply is fixed in the short run. There are accusation of realpage telling landlords to leave units vacant but I'd like to see some better evidence and numbers.
- eptcyka 3y ago
  I don't disagree that in most cities with any kind of upward economic development there's an inherent market pressure increasing prices - people will want to live in a city and there's a limited supply. However, what realpage is doing is distorting the upward market force, making the increase steeper than it normally would be. One could make the argument that this is just capitalism and applying market forces to human lives is always the moral thing to do. I don't believe it is, I care more about the human outcomes of the systems we use. Ultimately, the underlying problem is the lack of housing supply, which is different from Realpage enabling the collusion between different independent landlords exploiting the shortage in housing supply even further.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

csomar 3y ago

See. This doesn't make economic sense. In a monopoly, there is a single accounting source. That's not the case in a "price fixed market by multiple players". If I have a single house, it might make sense not to rent it to increase the rent price across board for all landlords. But it makes more sense to rent it at a lower price, for the individual landlord, than let it sit empty. Unless the whole market is owned by a few big corporations instead of small landlords who are using their second home as retirement or extra income. Oh wait...

HDThoreaun 3y ago

This only works if realpage is causing landlords to leave units vacant. Otherwise the market clearing prices don't change since supply is fixed in the short run. There are accusation of realpage telling landlords to leave units vacant but I'd like to see some better evidence and numbers.

eptcyka 3y ago
I don't disagree that in most cities with any kind of upward economic development there's an inherent market pressure increasing prices - people will want to live in a city and there's a limited supply. However, what realpage is doing is distorting the upward market force, making the increase steeper than it normally would be. One could make the argument that this is just capitalism and applying market forces to human lives is always the moral thing to do. I don't believe it is, I care more about the human outcomes of the systems we use. Ultimately, the underlying problem is the lack of housing supply, which is different from Realpage enabling the collusion between different independent landlords exploiting the shortage in housing supply even further.