Austin Klar breaks down three moves against AI in rental pricing: a San Francisco bill banning AI rent-setting tools, a DOJ investigation into RealPage's pricing algorithms, and Biden's proposed 5% rent cap. He argues these miss the real problem: San Francisco needs more housing, not price controls.
Legislation has been introduced in San Francisco that would ban property owners and managers from using AI tools to set rental prices. At the same time, the Department of Justice has been investigating a company called RealPage, which makes real estate management software that uses tools like this to set prices. And most recently, President Biden made an attempt to introduce legislation that will cap rent increases at 5%, and that's obviously getting a lot of pushback. A lot is changing with AI, and we're certainly hyper-aware of the effects of the housing shortage here in San Francisco. I still think the solution is more supply and more building, less about legislation on pricing itself. The market is going to sort itself out if we have more inventory. Let me know what you think in the comments.
