Tenants and a top prosecutor have accused major landlords and a popular apartment-pricing site of colluding to inflate rents. A legal expert says it shows algorithmic collusion is no longer 'science fiction.'

Tech Insider : Economy
A sign is posted in front of an apartment building with available rentals on June 09, 2023 in San Francisco, California.
Rent-settling algorithms used by landlords nationwide may be artificially increasing rents above market rates.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Turning a tiny fraction of America's dead strip malls into housing could create 700,000 new apartments

Tech Insider : Economy, Politics
Roseville, Minnesota
Transforming old strip malls into housing could help address the retail apocalypse and the housing crisis.

Michael Siluk/Getty Images

Americans have to pay 52% more to buy a home compared to renting

Tech Insider
small house front porch

Shutterstock

The average monthly mortgage on a new home is 52% higher than the average rent on an apartment: report

Tech Insider
A hand holds a miniature model of a house.
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2 participants in Denver's basic-income experiment say it's helped them buy a car, rent an apartment, and turn their lives around

Tech Insider : Economy
Dia Broncucia and Justin Searls both were participants in the Denver Basic Income Project.
Dia Broncucia and Justin Searls both are participants in the Denver Basic Income Project.

Armando Generyo/Denver Basic Income Project

Rents in Oakland have fallen faster than anywhere else in the US for a simple reason: The city built more housing

Tech Insider : Economy, Politics
New apartments are constructed as seen from this drone view at the Brooklyn Basin development in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, August 24, 2021.
New apartments are constructed as seen from this drone view at the Brooklyn Basin development in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, August 24, 2021.

Jane Tyska/Getty Images

Americans' average rent payments have jumped to $2,047. This chart shows how affordability has evolved in the last decade.

Tech Insider
brooklyn apartment rent
A sign advertises an apartment for rent along a row of brownstone townhouses in the Fort Greene neighborhood on June 24, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City

Drew Angerer/Getty

I entered a bidding war to land an apartment. It was way more brutal than I expected.

Tech Insider : Economy, Economy
A auction gavel hits the top of a New York apartment, sending yellow sparks from its perimeter. Anonymous hands raise numerous prices as they bid on this apartment amid a light blue background
At every step of my apartment hunt, the message was clear: Being first in line may not be enough.

Arantza Pena Popo/Insider

San Francisco says tiny sleeping 'pods,' which cost $700 a month and became a big hit with tech workers, are not up to code

Tech Insider
Brownstone Shared Housing
Tech workers have been using the pods to help them settle in San Francisco.

Brownstone Shared Housing

America's biggest cities have 5.5 million empty homes

Tech Insider
Colorful homes in New Orleans, Louisiana

Peter Unger/Getty Images

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