- Response to the letter from Democrats to Defense Secretary, February 2025

RealPage software reflects the market; it does not manipulate it. Today’s high housing costs are the result of an undersupply of housing in the U.S. – a shortage of 4.5 million homes, according to Zillow.

The goal of this irresponsible letter from Senator Warren and some of her Democratic colleagues is to blame today’s housing affordability crisis on the private sector, rather than the failed policies of the Biden Administration. Military families are invoked in this inquiry to impassion those who care about our men and women in uniform. RealPage and our many employees who have served our country care deeply about our military personnel, and it is shameful to see such a blatant attack on our company and the false allegations that we are price-gouging military families.

Nothing about the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is ever considered in rent pricing recommendations made by our software. Indeed, as the Senators already know, our software never considers any personal information about residents or applicants. 

If asked, we will meet with Secretary Hegseth and discuss how our products work and the lawfare campaign that Senator Warren and her colleagues continue to pursue against a U.S. company that provides products and services that benefit residents, housing providers and the rental housing ecosystem as a whole.

- Response to the DOJ Filing in January, 2025

We are disappointed that the DOJ, just one month after abandoning its baseless criminal investigation and less than two weeks before the agency changes hands, is expanding its civil lawsuit related to use of revenue management software. Fewer than 10% of all rental housing units in the U.S. use RealPage software to suggest rental prices, and our software recommendations are accepted less than half the time, as the DOJ has acknowledged. 

It does not make sense to now sue these, or any, property management companies using RealPage, as our software was purposely built to be legally compliant. It’s past time to stop scapegoating RealPage - and now our customers - for housing affordability problems when the root cause of high housing costs is the under-supply of housing which we have been saying from the beginning.    

RealPage’s use of nonpublic data has always been legal, but to help our customers comply with new local legislation that limits the use of nonpublic data, we have already removed nonpublic executed rent pricing data from the highly blended, aggregated and anonymized market range rent information used by our products. Of note, the politically motivated push to outlaw the use of nonpublic data is misguided; nationally, from 2019-2023, nonpublic executed lease prices were, on average, nearly 1.20% lower than the corresponding publicly available pricing information.

It is also unfortunate that Attorneys General of Massachusetts and Illinois are joining this flawed civil case that seeks to blame pro-competitive technology that has been used responsibly for years. Lack of supply is the root cause of the housing affordability crisis. 

We are still reviewing the DOJ’s new claims, but we continue to believe this lawsuit will do nothing to make housing more affordable and will stifle the innovation that helps the U.S. remain globally competitive. We are proud of the solutions RealPage provides, and we remain committed to vigorously defending ourselves and our customers against the DOJ’s accusations.

- Regarding the California Wildfires, January 2025

As the wildfires across California continue to devastate the region and cause terrible disruption to people’s lives, RealPage wants to express its deepest sympathies and help support local communities by reassuring them that our software can help avoid the charging of inappropriate or illegal rents.

All three of RealPage’s revenue management software solutions are specifically designed to allow property managers to quickly and comprehensively set rules to constrain rent adjustments or to hold rents flat in areas affected by the disaster. Customers can apply policies and guidelines to all of their sites with one easy step, protecting residents against inappropriate rent increases and allowing them to ensure compliance with rent gouging laws in a declared state of emergency.  

Last week, RealPage posted this guide on its website to help its customers navigate the unexpected disaster events:  

Through this First Response Guide, we provide recommendations for communicating important information to residents through our ActiveBuilding community portal product. The guide also includes information to assist in holding rents flat or constraining rent adjustments during the emergency, provides directions for suspending residents’ automatic payments if a property is no longer inhabitable, and offers help for customers and their residents to file renters’ insurance claims and manage other important issues.

RealPage is actively reaching out to its customers to offer our assistance.

- Response to The White House CEA report in December, 2024

We are disappointed The White House CEA never contacted RealPage about their report, which is riddled with flawed assumptions. They claim to have access to RealPage’s data, and they do not. Their conclusions are based on the erroneous assumption that all property managers are setting coordinated rents, but that is not how RealPage’s revenue management software (RMS) works. The software’s recommendations are highly customized to each individual property’s own strategy, circumstances, and data, and do not in any way depend on recommendations made to other properties.

RealPage’s RMS is purposely designed to be legally compliant, and despite the false allegations to the contrary, our customers have always had complete discretion to accept or reject their bespoke pricing recommendations. RealPage’s RMS does not fix prices, and the report does not provide any evidence to support that assumption. Even DOJ has admitted that customers reject the pricing recommendations more than half the time, on average, and that LRO and AIRM/YieldStar are different revenue management software and should not be treated as the same.  

Further, the report’s market penetration analysis is wrong from the start because it does not consider competition from smaller rental properties. Renters do not consider only properties with 5 or more units when they look for housing options. The CEA does not have RealPage’s data and looks to the Calder-Wang and Kim paper, which, among other problems and limitations, acknowledges that the authors “do not have access to the underlying algorithms used” and “therefore, our findings cannot be used to assess the legality” of RealPage RMS. It’s past time to stop scapegoating RealPage for housing affordability problems when, as the report admits, the “root cause of high housing costs is the under-supply of housing,” which we have been saying from the beginning.

- Response to RealPage’s motion to dismiss in December, 2024

RealPage filed a motion to dismiss the Justice Department’s lawsuit alleging antitrust violations because the DOJ’s baseless claims failed to meet governing legal standards. The allegations in the complaint do not demonstrate that RealPage has done anything but compete on the merits. The facts refute the DOJ’s antitrust allegations: RealPage’s software covered by the complaint actually supports less than 7% of rentals nationwide, and our customers have always had complete discretion to set their own rents. Furthermore, as DOJ acknowledges in their complaint, the software’s recommendations are accepted by customers less than half the time. RealPage’s revenue management software does not violate antitrust laws or fix prices in any way – RealPage products are purposely built to be legally compliant. The DOJ has failed to allege an antitrust violation, and we believe the court should dismiss this suit.

- Response to the DOJ action in August, 2024

“We are disappointed that, after multiple years of education and cooperation on the antitrust matters concerning RealPage, the DOJ has chosen this moment to pursue a lawsuit that seeks to scapegoat pro-competitive technology that has been used responsibly for years. It is merely a distraction from the fundamental economic and political issues driving inflation throughout our economy – and housing affordability in particular – which should be the focus of policymakers in Washington, D.C.   

RealPage’s revenue management software is purposely built to be legally compliant, and we have a long history of working constructively with the DOJ to show that. In fact, in 2017 when the DOJ granted antitrust clearance for our acquisition of LRO, the DOJ also analyzed extensive information about our revenue management products without objecting to them in any way.  We believe the claims brought by the DOJ are devoid of merit and will do nothing to make housing more affordable. We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these accusations.”

— Response to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors proposal in August, 2024

“Housing affordability should be the real focus. While we share the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ goal of helping renters, this ordinance will do nothing to make housing more affordable in the city, where there is a severe supply shortage of rental units that needs to be addressed. Across our three revenue management software products, RealPage serves only 10% of the rental market in San Francisco. Our software is purposely built to be legally compliant and can be configured to comply with the new ordinance should it pass a final vote. The ordinance’s misplaced focus on nonpublic information is a distraction that will only make San Francisco’s historical problems worse by banning an important component of pricing technology that RealPage uses responsibly and that benefits residents, property managers, and the rental housing ecosystem as a whole. RealPage is proud of the solutions we provide to the San Francisco community, and we encourage the Board of Supervisors to identify real solutions to increase the supply of rental housing and access to affordable housing.”

—  Regarding the failed Colorado bill that would have banned “algorithmic devices”
that use non-public information to inform the setting of residential rents, May, 2024 

“RealPage is grateful that a bipartisan effort in the Colorado legislature killed a bill that would have been bad policy for renters, housing providers, and the efforts in the state to advance housing affordability and availability. The out-of-state effort to advance this ill-advised legislation was based on a willful mischaracterization of the facts and the benefits that revenue management software provides to the entire multifamily housing ecosystem. We worked diligently to address the bill sponsor's concerns and we are thankful that a wise bipartisan effort defeated legislation that was based on fear and ignorance, and would have had the opposite effect of what it claimed to seek.”

—  Response to the Arizona AG in February, 2024

“Repeating the inaccuracies of predecessor cases, this copycat lawsuit is wrong on both the facts and the law.  The complaint is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how revenue management software works and the significant benefits that it offers for residents, property managers, and the rental housing ecosystem as a whole. The software recommends rates in all directions–oftentimes recommending rent reductions. Our customers retain 100% control over the rents they offer, and they accept, reject, or modify the software’s recommendations at widely varying rates. RealPage’s revenue management software is purposely designed and built to be legally compliant, and we will vigorously defend against this lawsuit.”