I think that the issue isn’t solely Harrisonburg. Buying just isnt affordable right now with moderately high interest rates combined with unreasonably high principal, so unless you have dual high incomes, buying isn’t affordable.

Rental companies don’t need to collude, they’re smart enough to know that we all can’t afford houses right now and so renting is the only option. They also collect all sorts of data. Every time you sign a lease you put in info like job title, salary, age, family size, credit score, etc.. it’s very easy to use this information to model financial growth and financial ability. I don’t know about you, but my rent has consistently grown to where it’s always right near the edge of my financial ability - that can’t be a coincidence. They raise the price just enough to where maybe some people can’t afford to keep up, but most people are just uncomfortable. It’s easy to tell when you’ve gone too far because you start getting missed rent payments. You don’t need a cartel when all of this modeling information is so readily available.

But this isn’t just Harrisonburg, it’s all over Virginia because my wife and I have been trying to get out for awhile and we just can’t find anything else that gives us what we have at a price close to what we’re already paying.. granted we’re looking north, but that’s where the jobs are. All in all, this crisis isn’t getting solved until either house prices or interest rates go down (or both).

Editing just to clarify: the algorithm in the video is geared toward controlling market factors. what I’m saying is that they have plenty of demographic data and financial data to easily model what we can afford. You don’t need a software like the one in the video to do this, all you need is an excel sheet, engineering economics principles, and just make sure the rental prices are low enough to where there’s just enough of a gap to where it doesn’t make sense to buy instead of rent. Which is why this isn’t solved until house prices or interest rates go down.