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Welcome to You’re Probably Getting Screwed, a weekly newsletter and video series from J.D. Scholten and Justin Stofferahn about the Second Gilded Age and the ways economic concentration is putting politics and profits over working people.
You might recall the viral slogan [ [link removed] ] of perennial New York candidate Jimmy McMillan. The Rent Is Too Damn High! Jokes and memes aside, it has never been more true and not just in New York or for renters. In 2022 according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies [ [link removed] ] over 22 million Americans spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities and another 20 million homeowners spent more than that on housing costs. Those numbers are before US home prices reached record highs [ [link removed] ] in 2024 with the US home price index rising 47 percent since early 2020!
The conversation of how to address our housing affordability crisis, has been dominated by the Yes In My Back Yard (YIMBY) movement, which has identified [ [link removed] ] restrictive zoning as a key culprit in skyrocketing costs. YIMBYs see eliminating those restrictions as a way to spur more building and ease the shortage of available housing. Its a key piece of the abundance framework we covered [ [link removed] ] the other day. Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign had a housing plan [ [link removed] ] that focused on zoning reforms and cutting red tape and last year Congress launched a YIMBY Caucus [ [link removed] ]. The movement has had the most success locally. Several years ago Minneapolis [ [link removed] ] became the first city to end single-family zoning and states like Oregon [ [link removed] ] have passed laws that will limit the restrictions local governments can place on development.
But annoying neighbors are not the only thing standing in the way of a more abundant housing stock as monopolies and anticompetitive conduct are an important culprit as well. That was the diagnosis of Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff (D) who announced [ [link removed] ] this week he is launching an investigation into corporate ownership of housing. Since the Great Recession investors have been gobbling up single family homes and converting them into rentals, limiting the supply of homes available to purchase and gaining further control over the rental market. Analysis by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that large companies [ [link removed] ] now own 25% of the single-family rental homes in metro Atlanta. That share is anywhere from 15 to 20% in cities like Charlotte, Jacksonville and Phoenix.
Single family homes are not the only type of housing that investors are gobbling up. Private equity firms have increasingly been adding manufactured housing to their portfolios, pushing out the smaller businesses that had often these communities. There are around 22 million Americans [ [link removed] ] that live in manufactured housing, making it the largest source of non-subsidized affordable housing. According to the Private Equity Stakeholder Project [ [link removed] ] three of the four largest private equity firms (Apollo Global Management, Blackstone and The Carlyle Group) own manufactured housing, and investors accounted for 23% of all manufactured home purchases in 2020 and 2021. In Michigan, private equity firms own one in every seven manufactured homes in the state. For residents these new corporate overlords often mean steep rent increases, onerous rules as well as evictions. In a cruel twist, evictions can be lucrative as residents may abandon their home or sell it to investors at steep discounts.
Speaking of private equity, PE-backed firms are also engaged in price-fixing. Regular readers will be plenty familiar with RealPage [ [link removed] ], the software company that has been accused by the Department of Justice [ [link removed] ] and various state attorneys general [ [link removed] ] of engaging in algorithmic price-fixing that has raised rents. RealPage collects detailed real-time data from landlords and then uses an algorithm to generate recommended rental rates using that data, allowing landlords to tacitly collude. RealPage, which offers other services to landlords, also uses coercive tactics that make it difficult for landlords to reject the company’s rental recommendations.
RealPage is not the only price-fixer in the housing industry. In 2023 a jury found the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and some of the largest brokerages in the country guilty of operating a price-fixing scheme [ [link removed] ] that had long inflated commissions paid to real estate agents. Last year NAR settled that lawsuit for $418 million and also agreed to various transparency requirements that should create more competition and drive down commissions.
The YIMBY movement is not wrong, new housing supply has been constrained and has not recovered from the steep dropoff following the Great Recession. But like so much else in our Gilded Age economy, consolidation is playing a major role. Luis Quintero, an economist, has found [ [link removed] ] that 60% of local home building markets are now highly concentrated. The Great Recession wiped out many smaller builders, allowing larger ones to consolidate market share. In some communities 80% of new housing is from one company. Less competition means less construction and higher profits for the builders that remain. Consider what Matt Stoller found [ [link removed] ] about D.R. Horton, the country’s largest homebuilder. When D.R. Horton sold a record number of homes in 2005 it made $1.47 billion, but in 2023 when it built half the number of homes the company’s profit was $4.7 billion!
None of this is inevitable and just like with zoning reforms, local policymakers can play a major role. States and cities across the country [ [link removed] ] have taken initial steps to prohibit algorithmic price fixing in the rental market, and state attorneys general have taken action to crack down on RealPage’s actions. Those state AGs can also move to block merger among home builders. State legislators have also been introducing bills that would limit corporate ownership [ [link removed] ] of single-family housing, similar to how some Midwest states currently prohibit corporate ownership of farmland. The National Consumer Law Center has compiled policy proposals [ [link removed] ] for state legislators seeking to address rental housing junk fees. When it comes to private equity’s role in manufactured housing, states have recently enacted or strengthened [ [link removed] ] existing laws providing residents the opportunity to own manufactured housing communities.
We need more abundant housing, but if we don’t deal with the monopolies in the industry, the rent will continue to be too damn high!
YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:
Neoliberalism
An interesting discussion between MSNBC pundit Joe Scarborough and journalist Anand Giridharadas about Steve Bannon, Lina Khan and economic populism where even Scarborough admits the need for Democrats to move on from 90s-era corporate-friendly politics.
Amazon
The Big Tech giant has capitulated [ [link removed] ]. It was reported recently that Amazon planned to separately list tariff costs on the website, but after a meeting between Jeff Bezos and President Trump, the company has backed off. While that cozy relationship between billionaires and the White House is distressing in its own way, antitrust expert Hal Singer points out [ [link removed] ] that Amazon’s original plan simply showcased another way the platform uses its immense power over third-party sellers.
Gig Economy
The Trump Administration is planning to repeal [ [link removed] ] a Biden Administration rule that would have made it harder for companies to misclassify workers as independent contractors. This is a big win particularly for Big Tech companies, but as this report [ [link removed] ] from the Century Foundation highlights, misclassification is not just an issue for Amazon or Uber drivers:
Crypto
In not at all surprising news, the FBI reports [ [link removed] ] that crypto scams are on the rise.
Rural Airports
A recent Trump Administration budget proposal would slash funding [ [link removed] ] for the Essential Air Service, which subsidizes small rural airports that will have trouble surviving without public funding. This funding stream was established following the deregulation of the airlines in 1978, which helped enable the massive consolidation and lack of access in the industry today.
SOME GOOD NEWS
Abundance v Antimonopoly
The other week we covered the debate among Democrats about abundance and antimonopoly. Well credit to Ezra Klein, a leading advocate of the abundance framework, for inviting Zephyr Teachout onto his show, along with climate activist Saikat Chakrabarti, to discuss their respective critiques of his book.
Data Centers Required to Pay Up
A victory for democratic ownership! While Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s state-owned utility that was created by the New Deal, does not have a perfect track record, it voted unanimously [ [link removed] ] last week to approve a special electricity rate for data centers. The state legislators around the country looking to subsidize Big Tech boondoggles should take note.
App Store Fees Curbed
Whenever you spend money within an app on your mobile device, Apple or Google take a 30% slice. The app tax is a classic example of a monopoly inserting itself as a middleman and skimming off other people’s money. As writer Cory Doctorow put it [ [link removed] ]:
“From independent news outlets to crafters selling their work out of small storefronts, all the way up to massive entertainment services like Disney Plus and Fortnite, the mobile cartel takes 30% out of every dollar, a racket they maintain with onerous rules that ban apps from using their own payment processors, or even from encouraging users to click a link that brings them to a web-based payment screen.”
Fortunately a court ruling last week is poised to change this. In a lawsuit between Epic Games and Apple, a judge has sided [ [link removed] ] with Epic and ruled Apple must end its app tax opening up the space to alternative payment processors.
BEFORE YOU GO
Before you go, I need two things from you: 1) if you like something, please share it on social media or the next time you have coffee with a friend. 2) Ideas, if you have any ideas for future newsletter content please comment below. Thank you.
Break Em Up,
Justin Stofferahn

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