The six largest publicly traded apartment companies in the US – all linked to an alleged rental price fixing scandal — experienced profit increases during the first three months of the year, according to an analysis by the left-leaning watchdog group USA responsible shared exclusively with The Hill.
In the analysis, the companies made a combined profit of $300 million during the first quarter of the year, in part due to increases in rents.
Mid-America Apartments, the largest publicly traded apartment owner in the U.S., earned $147.6 million between January and March, a 5.4 percent increase since the same time last year.
Similarly, AvalonBay Communities, the country’s second-largest apartment company, reported profits of $173.4 million in March, an approximate value of 18 percent increase than the company earned in the same period last year.
The company’s “rental and other income” revenue rose to about $711 million during the first quarter of the year, a 5.6% increase over the same period last year, according to a press release of AvalonBay Communities.
“We feel well positioned as we enter peak rental season given low turnover, solid occupancy and positive rental rate momentum,” AvalonBay Communities CEO Benjamin Schall said in a conference call focused on the company’s earnings. at the beginning of this year.
“Large proprietary companies continued to increase the incomes of ordinary families, regardless of the level of growth in their profits. To make matters worse, many landlords have rewarded a small group of wealthy investors with new donations at the expense of struggling tenants,” Liz Zelnick, director of Accountable US’ economic security and corporate power program, said in a statement.
Mid-America Apartments, Avalon Bay Communities, along with the other four companies mentioned in the report, were some of the 14 landlords sued by the Washington D.C. attorney general’s office last year for possibly conspiring to illegally raise the rents of thousands of tenants by “collectively delegating price-setting authority to RealPage.”
O legal complaints software company RealPage worked with real estate companies to artificially inflate the price of thousands of rental units, which resulted in district residents paying “millions of dollars above fair market price.”
The six apartment companies and RealPage have not yet responded to The Hill’s requests for comment.
Americans are struggling to afford housing as rent prices rise faster than wages.
A recent analysis from Zillow and StreetEasy found that rents rose 30.4% nationwide between 2019 and 2023, while wages rose about 20% over the same period.
New Data from the Department of Laborreleased Wednesday, shows that housing costs remain high.
Consumer prices did not change throughout May and general inflation appears to be slowing down, according to new data.
But housing costs rose for the fourth consecutive month in May – a 5.4% increase compared with the same period last year, the data shows.
The labor data comes as the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy panel is set to announce its interest rate decision in June.
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