DOJ escalates price-fixing probe on housing market
Source: Politico
03/20/2024 10:00 AM EDT
The Justice Department is expanding its probe of the rental housing market, opening a criminal investigation of a top developer of property pricing software and some of its customers, according to four people with knowledge of the matter.
The DOJ is looking into the possibility that RealPage is facilitating price-fixing among some of the large residential property owners and management firms that use the company’s product, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss a confidential matter.
The move opens a new front in an array of investigations and lawsuits targeting the rental housing market by the DOJ, state attorneys general and class-action plaintiff lawyers. It involves software companies such as RealPage and dozens of managers and owners of apartment complexes around the country. The White House and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have produced several policy directives aimed at the industry.
It is also a marked escalation of the probe, which has been underway for at least two years and has been run primarily by the DOJ’s antitrust lawyers as a civil matter, which is also ongoing, the people said.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/20/rental-housing-market-doj-investigation-00147333
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