Priced Out by Design: How AI, Big Data, and Corporate Landlords Crashed Our Housing Market, and How to Fix It (Paperback or Softback)

IN TODAY’S AMERICA, housing is out of reach for 51 million people. Behind the housing affordability crisis lies a new culprit: AI-powered revenue management technology. This pricing software enables powerful corporate landlords to leverage big data and AI for algorithmic price-fixing, inflating rents, and maximizing profits — transforming housing into a high-tech pricing cartel.

At a 2022 Congressional hearing, industry leaders blamed construction costs and housing shortages for high housing prices. But 30 lawsuits against RealPage, the owner of the controversial pricing software, tell a different story — one of antitrust violations, collusion, and deceptive practices, including withholding substantial numbers of rental units from the market to manufacture scarcity and inflate rents.

In stark contrast, in 1939, the New Deal made homeownership cheaper than renting, fueling the largest middle class in history. Today, AI-powered revenue management, once hailed as efficient, is deepening inequality and pricing millions out of their homes.

PRICED OUT BY DESIGN is an exposé of the modern rental industry. Exposing the predatory nature of the pricing technology, which sets rental rates through algorithmic price-fixing, doubling profits while creating a national housing crisis. Through investigation and human stories, it reveals how high-tech pricing cartels have destroyed housing affordability and how effective regulations can fix it.

Meet James M. Nelson, "the man behind the RealPage lawsuits" [Propmodo Jan 2023]. Nelson is a former federal banking regulator with an economics degree from BYU and over 40 years of banking and financial experience. He authored a massive 1,400-page study conducted over five years that meticulously detailed pricing mechanisms and data-sharing practices in the multifamily housing industry. His research underpins the DOJ's lawsuits and 30 legal actions against RealPage. Through consulting agreements with prominent antitrust law firms, Nelson has served as a key expert, helping drive industrywide reform and transparency. The author invites you to join him on this five-year journey to uncover the truth behind skyrocketing housing costs that drive the affordability crisis.