USA Today - What is behind the steep increase in rental prices?

Legal director Sandeep Vaheesan joins The Excerpt to discuss the lawsuit which alleges RealPage, a software company providing data-driven tools for managing rental properties, enabled landlords to collude using shared rental data, driving up rents and reducing competition.

Across the country, Americans are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of rent. Rental prices have gone up roughly 35% during the last five years, according to the real estate service firm Zillow. Recently, the Justice Department and attorneys general from eight states filed a lawsuit against a software company that helps landlords manage 16 million rental units nationwide. That company is called RealPage. According to the lawsuit, RealPage has shared data about rental properties that has led property owners to collude rather than compete in the rental market. Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director at the Open Markets Institute, joins us on The Excerpt to discuss RealPage and the recent antitrust lawsuit filed against them.

View full article here.