Clever algorithm may be what's driving rent prices so high

Yep, that seems like the sales pitch: 5% more profit, plus absolve yourself from any potential guilt caused by your actions!

You aren't contributing to an affordability crisis -- you're simply keeping up with market changes. You aren't choosing to nickel and dime people for all they're worth -- you're taking the recommendation of a sophisticated algorithm. You aren't enriching yourself at the expense of those less fortunate -- you're just getting the most out of your investment.

I'm being a little cynical here, but then owning rental property has been a cynic's game since time immemorial.

There's an HBO show "Barry", with Bill Hader and Henry Winkler (worth a watch for sure) that touches on this. Barry's girlfriend has a TV show on the in-world equivalent of Netflix and is thrilled when it hits the front page, and then crushed when 12 hours later it's off the front page and cancelled. In the most simultaneously hilarious and insightful scene I watched in 2022, they meet with an executive who explains how she's powerless to make any change since "the algorithm" had decided that her show didn't pop with the right demographics.

Yup, collusion without having any meetings.

Now, if the tenants had an app that could organize rent negotiations and strikes without meetings based on algorithmic market analyses, we might be getting to an actual market.