I’d have to see data in order to confirm this is true. Once a delinquency gets placed on a credit report paying the bill doesn’t help the person that owes. It also assumes that the people not paying are choosing to do so rather than not being able to. Given the debts are sold at a steep discount, I’d say it’s more efficient to have lower prices up front which could potentially be affordable for more of the customers.
I’d say based upon the overall profitability and scale of single family corporate landlords like American homes for rent that commercial interests have great influence over pricing. Smaller landlords are then able to price similarly. It makes little sense for them to have houses be empty and lose money, but this is often the case. However, the focal point is the drivers of pricing and I don’t see any evidence in your argument as to why I am wrong.
I’d say it’s because the pricing is algorithmic based off of demographic and personal data. Similar to hotels, it can be more profitable to keep some empty in order to reduce supply and price up the others.
I think it’d be quite nice to celebrate process more than results. Investigating a topic and demonstrating lacks of correlation or causation is remarkably useful for future investigators. The opposite can be said if a result falsely gets promoted which causes others to waste time in attempts of reproduction or continuing a mostly failed path of analysis.