Apartment-dwellers may get some rental relief after federal officials reached a price-fixing settlement with the nation's largest private landlord: Greystar.
The agreement between the government and South Carolina-based Greystar, which manages about 950,000 units nationally, blocks the company from using computer software blamed for ratcheting up rents. Greystar on Aug. 8 said it had also reached a similar settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by renters.
Federal attorneys had accused Greystar of using computer algorithms to bump up rents by illegally colluding with other landlords via software known as "RealPage." The software system allowed landlords to privately share their proprietary pricing data with each other so they could raise prices collectively.
Federal attorneys said the collusion maximized profits for landlords while stifling competition. The lawsuit said RealPage users were also collectively encouraged never to lower rents, even if the market had softened.
"American greatness has always depended on free-market competition, and nowhere is competition more important than in making housing affordable again," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
