Arizona Republic: Metro Phoenix tenants can get apartment data landlords use to set rents on new website

A Scottsdale apartment data firm has launched a free website to give metro Phoenix renters information that landlords use in an effort to prevent more tenants from being gouged.

Radix’s new apartment information program called RealRents was created partly in response to the Arizona attorney general’s February 2024 lawsuit alleging several major landlords and Texas-based property management data firm RealPage conspired to drive up costs for tenants.

On the Radix site, renters can search by ZIP code to find the average rent, the percentage of apartments full, average concessions landlords are offering and how many apartments are available.

RealRents also lists how many tenants are checking out apartments in an area, how many leases were signed in the ZIP during the past week and how the area ranks for rents in the Valley.

Apartment tenants have been hit with rapidly rising rents, unexpected fees and hidden costs during the past five years, and there’s been little regulation to address the problem. Being able to access data landlords use could help people avoid higher-than-average rents and hidden costs.

“RealRents is built on the premise that when data is transparent and available to all, everyone — tenants, operators, regulators — is better off,” said Blerim Zeqiri, CEO of Radix, in a statement.

The site provides much of the same data used by professional property managers to set rents and will cut down on hidden costs or bait-and-switch tactics, according to Radix.

Anticompetitive algorithmic pricing on rents by some metro Phoenix landlords was estimated to cost their tenants nearly $100 more a month on average in 2023, according to a December White House Council of Economic Advisers report. That’s more than the $70 monthly U.S. average.

The report was in response to the U.S. Department of Justice’s August antitrust lawsuit accusing RealPage and nine major landlords of participating in an illegal price-fixing practice that increased rents and fees to make property owners and managers more money.

Nine landlords were included in the original suit, and the Justice Department sued an additional six landlords on Jan. 7.

The Arizona RealPage lawsuit is currently in the discovery phase, said Richie Taylor, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office.

Attorney General Kris Mayes called Arizona apartment rent increases “astronomical” when the suit was filed.

“They tricked tenants into paying more for rent than they otherwise would have, and they did this at a time when inflation had skyrocketed, and Arizona’s affordable housing crisis was among the worst in the nation,” she said.

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Besides the Valley, Radix’s site provides apartment leasing data for several other major cities, including Las Vegas, Atlanta, Houston and Miami.

The landlords being sued by the Arizona attorney general are Greystar, Apartment Management Consultants, Avenue5 Residential, BH Management Services, Camden Property Trust, Crow Holdings LP/Trammell Crow Residential, HSL Properties Inc., RPM Living LLC and Weidner Property Management.

The property management firms and RealPage declined to comment on the lawsuit when it was filed.