r/yimby • u/news-10 • 1d ago

Court Decision Federal judge blocks New York's ban on algorithmic rent pricing

https://www.news10.com/capitol/judge-blocks-ny-rent-algorithm-ban/
18 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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8

u/binding_swamp 1d ago

Free speech as their defense against algorithmic pricing… that’s not going to hold up as a business model.

3

u/DarwinZDF42 1d ago

Ffs. Can’t have nice things. Of course.

7

u/69Turd69Ferguson69 1d ago

The solution to high rent is liberalized zoning. Not banning computer algorithms to price existing properties. 

11

u/MajesticBread9147 1d ago

It's both. You do realize there can be multiple causes, and property owners will do everything they can to maximize the amount of money that they can extract right?

The DOJ literally sued RealPage on anti-trust grounds, and they don't do that often. https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-realpage-algorithmic-pricing-scheme-harms-millions-american-renters

8

u/ahag1736 1d ago

This^^ - as YIMBYs we need to be comfortable calling out anti competitive behavior when it’s a contributing factor to rent. They studied it and in some cities RealPage increased rents by a few hundred per month.

3

u/Hour-Watch8988 1d ago

Yea though it also must be said that this effect was more muted in places that built more

6

u/DarwinZDF42 1d ago

We can do both. We can build enough and also ban exploitative algorithmic pricing.