Right right. They’re talking about it now, long after they should have taken serious action. Better late than never, but better early than late. And this problem goes back two decades FFS.
Now ACT, ffs
In August, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against the company, alleging its pricing algorithm allows landlords to collectively push rents higher.
I meant more about rents than the antitrust suit. It’s all well and good to hold the company accountable; meanwhile, rents have already been artificially inflated, and they don’t go down.
Unfortunately that pretty much depends on building more housing, which takes time and Congress.
I always hear this about building more housing, but I see a lot of new housing around me which sits empty because it is not affordable.
The benefit of market rate housing is that it hopefully will be occupied, allowing for higher income earners to move into a more expensive unit and freeing up an older lower cost unit. In a perfect world this works like a chain and eventually lower cost older units become more available. Building “affordable” or “low income housing” isn’t really appealing to developers without financial incentives.
This does all assume speculators do not buy the newer housing and sit on it as an investment. More housing being built is generally all a good thing and it needs to outpace the population growth to have an effect on pricing. So even if there is plenty of new housing if it’s not being built quick enough prices will continue to rise.
If the units are sitting empty as speculation/investments that’s an issue for government (and especially local government, so get out and vote locally!)
The benefit of market rate housing is that it hopefully will be occupied, allowing for higher income earners to move into a more expensive unit and freeing up an older lower cost unit.
But this assumes people are moving up the ladder. In 2024 this does not appear to generally be the case, but the system remains skewed to high earners.
(Not asking a question, just thinking out loud I guess)
Definitely, it’s easy for a large investor to build new market rate housing, buddy up with a pricing algorithm, and maximize profit. Then they sit until either all the other housing comes up in price or they eventually find someone willing to stomach the price.
Speaking from my own experience it took me a long time to move into a better apartment, not because I couldn’t afford it, but because there simply wasn’t enough housing that felt like a good value. So I sat in an apartment that was great but didn’t suit all my needs, and when I finally moved that older less expensive unit became available. If there was more newer housing, or more options in general, then maybe I would have moved quicker and that older unit could have been turned over to someone that needed it more sooner.
I guess my point is that part of it is the speed at which all this can happen is dependent on how much housing there is. And I’m also not saying market rate housing is the solution either. I think affordable housing, co-ops, etc. being part of the mix creates a more fair housing market.
We’re going to need a legion of Luigis at this point.
What would happen if a bunch of people put on Luigi masks, marched somewhere, with all their cellphones just looping this:
BE the change you wish to see in the world… /s 🙄
No /s
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
Yeah, I don’t think that will work out the way you imagine. They got there by being control freak assholes, so if you threaten them they’ll more likely just become even more ruthlessly violent in return so they can keep control - and they’ve got the money to buy all the weaponry they need to do so.
The insurance companies are hard at work creating more.
I believe that’s the cherry power up.
It will be required in January for all rental places to use it.
“The Previous Corrupt White House did one Good Thing by recognizing the Great Benefit to Landlords, the True American People™, this Software provides! That’s why I, Donald Jesus Trump Lord God King Your Savior, will require all Real Estate Transactions to use these Wonderful Inventions!”
Because it’s a fucking cartel.
It’s literally just cartel price fixing done through the medium of “a mysterious algorithm.”
Just like Wall St’s oil pricing.
That article isn’t paywalled.
But an archive link is useful nonetheless.
Having to provide an email address is a paywall.
You don’t have to? I’ve never given axios my email. In fact I’ve never seen an email popup on axios, though I do have a content blocker.
Yeah, it requested an email address.
Your blocker must be blocking that.
It’s OK. It’s just the old past time of exploiting the poor. Rest assured, the beatings will continue.
Never heard of a game called Monopoly?
We’ve known this for several years now. Do something about it.
In August, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against the company, alleging its pricing algorithm allows landlords to collectively push rents higher.
But FOSS is socialist!
I think you misunderstood the issue. House/apartment rental companies use software to price fix with each other.
Haha, so it would seem. :)
Not seem. Is. It’s been proven.
The comment was in reference to their misunderstanding rather than any doubt about what landlords are doing.
Lemme sent me the wrong comment in my feed.
