Algorithmic housing software doesn’t set prices or facilitate collusion | Opinion

Your July 7 article (Measure to ban algorithmic rent software in Bellingham has required signatures) states that algorithmic rent software “artificially inflates rent prices,” which presents a biased viewpoint as fact.

As a property management and real estate professional, I want to clarify that this software does not set prices or facilitate collusion. It aggregates market data to suggest values that landlords use independently, and often recommends lowering rents based on market conditions.

True collusion requires an illegal agreement to fix prices, whereas this technology simply analyzes organized data.

There has been less sophisticated software for years that landlords have used to try to determine the value of the rent they can charge for a given property.

But the marketplace determines what can be charged.

In order to lower the rent prices more units have to come online to create competition, which is happening now in Bellingham as there are a lot of new units recently built and more coming.

I don’t know what the basis would be for banning someone’s business that is a convenience for the landlords who want to subscribe to it.

It seems to me that it should be illegal to try to ban something that is simply a business someone has started to try to earn some money from the information they gather and organize.

Glen Whitfield, who resides in Bellingham, is owner of Rainshine Realty.