Berkeley is joining other cities in banning software that allows multiple landlords to act like a cartel in setting rents. Competition brings down prices. Alongside with new construction, anti-monopoly, anti-trust action can help reduce prices. www.berkeleyside.org/2025/03/12/b...
Is there any evidence that this software leads to higher rents?
Anecdotal evidence - if you read the DOJ complaint and other reporting, landlords themselves say it pushes them to charge more than they otherwise would have.
One of the software pricing services was also called "Rent Maximizer"
Marketing claims are one thing, but what do the statistics say?
I don’t think there are reliable statistics. A lot of advocates give numbers that are wildly unrealistic, but to suss out the effects of RealPage you’d need a lot of data that isn’t available publicly. I do however believe the landlords who say they charge higher rents because of it, that’s just me
If the Rent Stabilization Board wants to strike a blow for fair markets, perhaps they will consider publishing their periodic report that is required by statute but hasn't been written since 2021.
Are you referring to the Market Median and Vacancy report? rentboard.berkeleyca.gov/forms-report... I'll look into this.
Yes, that is the one. It is useful information to the public on both sides of the transaction, or would be if it were updated. It would also be worthwhile to chase down the large lessors that have apparently stopped complying with registration requirements, to freshen the data in the registry.
There's a reason the game is called Monopoly.
Previously, the federal government had sued several major landlord corporations for price fixing, but under the current presidents we can't rely on the federal government to stop price fixing, so it's good to see more cities take action.