https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rent-homelessness-harvard-report-center-for-housing-studies/
Rents over the last two decades have risen much faster than employee pay, contributing to an escalating homelessness crisis in the U.S.
Turns out the large property management companies have been colluding on this for years, skirting the law because "it's an algorithm bruh"
Yeah I'm not sure which algorithm the complex I'm in uses but it is definitely using one. All the listings on their website change prices every day, sometimes by just a few dollars a month sometimes it swings wildly by hundreds of dollars
My partner and I are close to securing a lease in SF and we explicitly picked places that appeared to be owned by a person and not a giant corporation to avoid this BS.
Our current landlord and property manager are both amazing. They tried to get someone out at 8pm when our hot water heater broke, and our rent wasn't raised when our lease went to monthly. If not for wanting to live in the city we'd have likely stayed here for many years.
I definitely prefer dealing with actual people if I have to have a landlord. Specifically I kinda like the landlords that just don't give a fuck because I like to repair and maintain things myself and you can get away with a lot.
I don't think it's skirting at all. Using math to collude on prices is still collusion. It's just as illegal as a bunch of companies saying the price is X.