CONTACT: Vishal Shankar, [email protected]
In response to the Department of Justice’s raid on Cortland Management in Atlanta, Georgia in connection with the DOJ’s ongoing investigation into price-fixing in the rental housing market, the Revolving Door Project issued the following statement:
Revolving Door Project Research Director Andrea Beaty said, “Tenants across the country have been warning government officials that landlords and property managers are driving up rents to unprecedented levels, regardless of vacancy rates, conditions, or basic decency. Recent lawsuits from two State Attorneys General as well as tenants allege that these sky-high prices were brought on, at least in part, by property tech company RealPage in partnership with its landlord and property management clients.”
“The DOJ’s raid on Cortland is an encouraging sign that the Biden administration is taking the threat of price-fixing in the rental market seriously. While President Biden’s housing platform is focused on the ever-important housing supply issue, increasing supply alone will not decrease rents when large swaths of the market are colluding instead of competing. Biden must call out corporations like RealPage and Cortland and their senior executives by name for their apparent rent-gouging and leaving American families in desperate straits.”
“The raid on Cortland is hopefully just the beginning of strong and prompt action to rebalance the rental housing market. Tenants are facing unaffordable rents today, and the Administration must take action to help them, today. And in a democracy, a public debate between presidential candidates over whether the Justice Department should or should not focus on prosecuting price fixing in housing, gas, and other key products is not only legally acceptable, but wildly overdue.”
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