Seattle considers banning controversial rent-setting software, RealPage

Heidi Groover, The Seattle Times on Jun 12, 2025

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Seattle is on track to ban landlords' use of controversial rent-setting software that has been under legal fire for years.

A Seattle City Council committee on Wednesday advanced a bill to bar landlords from subscribing to software platforms that compile rental information to recommend rent prices. The proposal targets the platform RealPage, which some of biggest property management firms in the country use. The service has drawn media scrutiny, lawsuits and a Department of Justice challenge.

RealPage compiles data from multiple landlords about their properties and uses an algorithm to recommend rent levels to property owners and managers who subscribe to the service. Critics say that because the platform goes beyond browsing publicly available data and taps into proprietary information, it amounts to collusion among landlords to keep rents high. RealPage denies those claims.

Councilmember Cathy Moore, who sponsored the legislation, called the ban an "important step" toward preventing people from losing their homes when they can no longer afford their rising rents.

"It won't solve all the problems, but every tool that we have, we need to be utilizing in this time of crisis," Moore said.

A spokesperson for RealPage said the company was "disappointed" about the possible ban. "We believe such software is used in pro-competitive ways that benefit the entire rental housing ecosystem, including renters and housing providers," spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock said in an email.

The council's housing committee approved the bill 4-0, and the full council is expected to vote on the proposal Monday.

The legislation is moving quickly through the process, and council members rebuffed landlords' calls to delay the bill Wednesday.

The RealPage bill comes as the body weighs rolling back some of the city's tenant protections at the request of affordable housing landlords.

Carter Nelson, director of government affairs at the Washington Multi-Family Housing Association, which represents landlords, told council members they should consult property owners and allow ongoing lawsuits against RealPage to play out before passing a ban.

"It doesn't address the key to affordability: removing barriers to build more housing," Nelson said.

Renters and tenant advocates offered support for the ban.

"The housing crisis has multiple causes, but algorithmic rent-price setting is a significant factor," said Kate Rubin, executive director of the renter education group Be:Seattle.

Seattle rents have been relatively flat in recent years as a flood of new supply hit the market. The cost of new leases in the city climbed 2% in the last year, according to Apartment List.

But census data shows gross rent and utilities costs for Seattle renters climbed 66% in the decade from 2013 to 2023. For many people with limited incomes, pay hasn't kept up. A new state law now caps annual rent increases at 10% per year for many tenants.

The city ban on software like RealPage would not cover programs that publish rent estimates based on public information and that do not require contracts or licenses to access. Tenants whose landlords violated the law could sue for damages of up to $7,500 per violation. The legislation is modeled off a bill state lawmakers considered earlier this year but ultimately failed to pass.

Seattle isn't the first city to try to tamp down use of rent-setting algorithms. San Francisco and other cities passed similar bans, while other efforts have stalled. Federal tax legislation under consideration in Congress could halt local bans.

In response to growing calls to ban rent-setting software, RealPage sued Berkeley, Calif., calling that city's law a ban on "the use of math and publicly available information." Asked about potential legal action in Seattle, Bowcock said, "at this point, everything is on the table."

Meanwhile, antitrust litigation continues to unfold. Washington and other states sued RealPage, accusing the company of violating antitrust and consumer protection laws and driving up rents. Renters have also sued the company in civil cases that have been consolidated in Tennessee.

RealPage products recommend rental pricing based on a combination of publicly available and private data submitted by various landlords who use the system. A RealPage representative told Washington lawmakers earlier this year that anonymized private data makes up about 30% of the external information the platform uses.

Washington's most recent lawsuit, filed in April, also names a group of landlords operating in the state, accusing them of coordinating not only by using the software but also during in-person meetings RealPage organized. The company "has built a business out of undermining the natural forces of competition," state attorneys wrote.

RealPage denies that its products hurt competition. The software sometimes recommends lower rents based on market conditions, and many landlords do not adopt the program's recommendations, the company said.

The Washington State Attorney General's Office estimates landlords used RealPage to set the costs of 800,000 leases in the state between 2017 and 2024.