Once
upon
a
time,
complaints
about
the
cost
of
living
were
met
with
snarky
responses
about
leisure
spending.
“Can’t
buy
a
house?
Stop
eating
avocado
toast,
dumb-dumb!”
As
much
as
I
wish
that
was
a
clever
absurdism
I
came
up
with,
that
was
an
actual
response
to
millennials
not
being
able
to
buy
homes.
The
excuses
change
a
bit
over
time
but
excuses
they
remain
—
the
more
recent
explanation
they
want
people
to
believe
is
that
people
aren’t
buying
homes
because
they
simply
would
rather
not:
Not
only
has
rent
been
too
damn
high,
the
DOJ
is
accusing
landlords
of
concerted
efforts
to
keep
it
that
way!
Globest
has
coverage:
[T]he
U.S.
Department
of
Justice
has
added
six
major
apartment
landlords
as
defendants,
alleging
their
involvement
in
a
widespread
scheme
to
artificially
inflate
rents
across
the
nation.The
amended
civil
complaint,
filed
on
Tuesday,
accuses
these
firms
of
using
RealPage’s
rent-pricing
algorithm
to
engage
in
illegal
price
fixing,
potentially
affecting
millions
of
renters
across
the
United
States.
…
The
newly
named
defendants
include
the
country’s
largest
apartment
owners:
Greystar
Real
Estate
Partners,
Blackstone’s
LivCor,
Willow
Bridge
Property
Company,
Camden
Property
Trust,
Pinnacle
(and
its
parent
company
Cushman
&
Wakefield),
and
Cortland.
This
small
group
of
firms
controls
over
1.3
million
units
across
the
country.
Buying
homes
en
masse
and
colluding
to
keep
rental
costs
high
probably
has
more
to
do
with
today’s
high
cost
of
entry
housing
market
than
a
penchant
for
fancy
toast
or
preferring
to
pay
rent.
A
2019
estimate
of
how
much
monopolies
cost
the
average
American
family
put
the
number
at
about
$300
per
month.
I
shudder
to
think
about
what
an
up-to-date
assessment
of
the
same
would
be
valued
at.
DOJ
Expands
Antitrust
Lawsuit,
Targets
Major
Landlords
in
Rent-Fixing
Scheme
[Globest]
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
cannot
swim, a
published
author
on
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected] and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.