RealPage has agreed to settle an antitrust lawsuit raised by the Department of Justice, alleging that landlords used its tools to coordinate efforts to artificially raise rental prices across the US.
In a press release, the DOJ promised the proposed settlement “would help restore free market competition in rental markets for millions of American renters.”
For years since the pandemic started, rental prices outpaced inflation, and the DOJ suspected that RealPage was the dominant force driving a market that never favored renters. Recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data covering a 12-month period ending this September showed rents are still rising by 3.5 percent amid an affordability crisis, leaving some US renters in fear of housing instability.