UDR Inc. Sued for Using Banned Rent Algorithm in San Diego | Evil Corporations

How a Maryland Corporation Broke San Diego’s New Tenant Protection Law

On May 22, 2025, San Diego’s City Council passed Ordinance No. O-21955, amending the Municipal Code to ban the use of algorithmic pricing software in residential rental housing. The ordinance took effect June 21, 2025. The law was explicit: it is now illegal for a landlord to use software that performs calculations using nonpublic competitor data to advise on rental prices or occupancy levels.

UDR, Inc., a Maryland corporation headquartered in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, manages multifamily apartment buildings across the United States, including properties in San Diego. According to the complaint filed by Jacob Keller, a San Diego tenant, UDR violated the new law by continuing to use RealPage’s algorithmic revenue management software after the ban took effect.

The lawsuit names three RealPage products in particular: YieldStar (now rebranded as AI Revenue Management or AIRM), Lease Rent Options (LRO), and Market Analytics. All three tools use algorithms to recommend rental prices and occupancy strategies. All three rely on data that is not available to the general public.

UDR’s own admissions in unrelated litigation confirm it used YieldStar. In a January 2025 response filed in District of Columbia v. RealPage, Inc. et al., UDR stated: “UDR further admits that it has used YieldStar as one tool among others to help with UDR’s independent decision-making concerning the management of certain of its multifamily units during the past four years.” UDR also admitted it signed a master agreement with RealPage on April 15, 2017.

Keller entered his lease with UDR in May 2025 and began occupancy in June 2025, after the ordinance became effective. His complaint alleges that UDR set his rent using software that violates the new law.

The Ordinance San Diego Passed to Stop Algorithmic Rent Inflation

San Diego Municipal Code § 98.1103(b) states clearly: “It is unlawful for a landlord to use an algorithmic device to set rental rates or occupancy levels for residential rental property.” The definition of “algorithmic device” is precise. Under § 98.1102, it means software that uses one or more algorithms to perform calculations of nonpublic competitor data from two or more landlords to advise a landlord on rental rates or occupancy levels.

“Nonpublic competitor data” is defined as information not available to the general public, whether anonymized or attributable to a specific competitor. This includes actual rental rates, rental rate changes, property supply levels, occupancy levels, and lease start and end dates.

The City Council enacted the ordinance after reviewing evidence that landlords’ use of such software had contributed to San Diego’s housing affordability crisis. According to the ordinance’s preamble, the average rental rate for a two-bedroom unit in San Diego reached $2,489 in August 2024, nearly 65% higher than the national median. A March 2024 Zillow report found that a family must earn $275,000 per year to afford a home mortgage in the city.

The ordinance explicitly references the U.S. Department of Justice’s August 2024 antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, Inc., which was later amended to include large corporate landlords. Eight state attorneys general, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, joined the federal case. UDR, Inc. was named as a defendant in that litigation.

San Diego’s City Council concluded that “while the litigation is pending, software companies, such as RealPage, Inc., continue providing algorithmic devices to landlords in the City. City families cannot wait for the DOJ lawsuit to run its course.” The ordinance was designed to provide “immediate relief.”

What RealPage’s Software Actually Does

RealPage, Inc. is an enterprise resource planning software company. It licenses multiple revenue management products to property management companies and property owners. These products are used to determine pricing for floor plans and individual units in multifamily apartment buildings.

YieldStar and AI Revenue Management (AIRM)

YieldStar was RealPage’s original algorithmic pricing tool. It has since been rebranded as AI Revenue Management (AIRM). Both products function similarly. They ingest competitively sensitive, real-time transactional data, including occupancy rates, lease terms, and rent rolls, collected from competing landlords. According to the complaint, RealPage makes over 50,000 monthly data collection calls surveilling over 11 million properties.

This data is fed into machine learning models that generate daily floor-plan price recommendations and unit-level pricing suggestions. RealPage’s own website advertises the use of “AI-driven algorithms” to “optimize revenue by providing precise recommendations for new and renewal leases.” The platform promises to “strategically balance rent and occupancy.”

A March 2023 letter from four U.S. senators to the DOJ Antitrust Division stated that RealPage confirmed YieldStar “uses a proprietary algorithm to make recommendations to apartment providers about setting a price for rental units at their property.” ProPublica reported on YieldStar in 2022, describing it as a “secret algorithm responsible for raising rents.”

Lease Rent Options (LRO)

LRO is another RealPage product that provides algorithmic price optimization. Unlike YieldStar/AIRM, which automatically collects data through RealPage’s surveillance network, LRO relies primarily on competitor pricing information that users manually input into the system. However, the complaint notes that this still constitutes the exchange of nonpublic competitor data.

RealPage acquired LRO in 2017 from The Rainmaker Group, a company that described itself as a “provider of automated Revenue Management and profit optimization solutions.” The acquisition was scrutinized by the DOJ Antitrust Division before being approved. An SEC filing by RealPage confirmed that LRO is a “revenue management solution that empowers optimized pricing for over 1.5 million apartments.”

Market Analytics

Market Analytics is described on RealPage’s website as “the multifamily industry’s leading intelligence platform.” It provides “daily updates on rents, concessions, floor plans, and occupancy” and is powered by “Lumina AI.” The platform integrates what RealPage calls “proprietary historical apartment data,” along with other datasets, to deliver real-time market intelligence.

RealPage’s FAQ page states that Market Analytics is designed for “Property Managers” in the “multifamily industry” and provides “robust and granular market intelligence” for conventional apartments. The system uses automated “True Comps selection algorithms” driven by “enhanced RealPage Data Science models” to recommend pricing strategies.

The complaint alleges that Market Analytics constitutes an algorithmic device under the San Diego ordinance because it uses nonpublic data to perform calculations and deliver rent and occupancy recommendations.

The Non-Financial Ledger: What Algorithmic Rent Costs Tenants

Jacob Keller’s complaint is not just about money. It is about a fundamental breach of trust. When a tenant signs a lease, they assume the rent was set through competitive market forces. Supply and demand. Location. Building quality. They do not assume their landlord outsourced pricing to a third-party algorithm fed by secret data from their landlord’s competitors.

The Council of Economic Advisers to the Biden administration quantified the harm in December 2024. According to their analysis, algorithmic pricing in rental housing costs renters in algorithm-utilizing units an average of $70 per month nationally, or 4% of rent. In San Diego specifically, the cost is $99 per month. Across six major metropolitan areas, the monthly cost exceeds $100. Nationwide, the total cost to renters in 2023 was approximately $3.8 billion.

That is $3.8 billion extracted from working families to pad the profit margins of corporate landlords who paid for access to a pricing cartel.

The human toll goes beyond the dollar amount. When rent increases outpace wage growth, families make impossible choices. They skip medical appointments. They delay car repairs. They move farther from their jobs, spending more time commuting and less time with their children. They double up in smaller units. They leave the city entirely.

San Diego’s housing crisis did not emerge from nowhere. It was engineered. Algorithmic rent-setting software allows landlords to maintain artificially high vacancy rates because the algorithm tells them it is more profitable to keep units empty at a higher price than to lower rents and fill them. This is not a bug. It is a feature.

Former FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter has warned that algorithmic decision-making in housing can perpetuate and amplify discrimination. Algorithms capture “niche, granular insights and lease details,” and when those details include proxies for race, family status, or disability, the software can produce discriminatory outcomes even when no human actor intended it.

RealPage’s software does not just set a price. It sets the ceiling of what a family can afford to pay. It determines who gets housing and who does not. And it does so using data that tenants cannot see, cannot challenge, and cannot escape.

Legal Receipts: What the Complaint Actually Says

The complaint filed by Jacob Keller is dense with legal citations, but the factual allegations are straightforward. Below are verbatim excerpts from the source document.

“It is unlawful for a landlord to use an algorithmic device to set rental rates or occupancy levels for residential rental property.”
— San Diego Mun. Code § 98.1103(b)

“[A] software or product that uses or incorporates one or more algorithms to perform calculations of nonpublic competitor data of two or more landlords to advise a landlord on, or recommend to a landlord, rental rates or occupancy levels that may be achieved for a residential rental property in the City of San Diego.”
— San Diego Mun. Code § 98.1102 (definition of “Algorithmic device”)

“[I]nformation that is not available to the general public, whether the information is attributable to a specific competitor or anonymized or whether the information is derived from or otherwise provided by another person. Nonpublic competitor data includes information about actual rental rates, rental rate changes, residential rental property supply levels, occupancy levels, or lease start and end dates.”
— San Diego Mun. Code § 98.1102 (definition of “Nonpublic competitor data”)

“UDR further admits that it has used YieldStar as one tool among others to help with UDR’s independent decision-making concerning the management of certain of its multifamily units during the past four years, … UDR further admits that it signed a One Master Agreement with RealPage dated April 15, 2017.”
— UDR, Inc.’s Answer in District of Columbia vs. RealPage, Inc. et al., No. 2023-CAB-006762 (D.C. Super. Ct. Jan. 22, 2025), ¶ 24

“Landlords’ use of algorithmic devices, which perform calculations of nonpublic competitor data concerning rental rates, occupancy levels, and other information, to set rental rates and occupancy levels has resulted in inflated rental rates and unfair rent increases and contributed to the City’s unaffordability for families.”
— Ord. No. O-21955, App. 05/22/2025, Eff. 06/21/2025

“[A] tenant may seek injunctive relief, damages, or civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation of this Division, in a civil action against a landlord.”
— San Diego Mun. Code § 98.1104(a)

“For each month a violation of section 98.1103(b) exists or continues, and for each residential rental property a landlord uses an algorithmic device, it shall constitute a separate and distinct violation.”
— San Diego Mun. Code § 98.1103(b)

These are not allegations subject to interpretation. They are the text of the law and the text of UDR’s own admissions in federal court.

Societal Impact Mapping

Environmental Degradation

Algorithmic rent inflation forces working families to move farther from urban job centers in search of affordable housing. This increases vehicle miles traveled, worsening air quality and accelerating climate change. Longer commutes mean more fossil fuel consumption, more traffic congestion, and more carbon emissions. The environmental cost of corporate greed is externalized onto the atmosphere.

Public Health

Housing instability is a public health crisis. Families who spend more than 30% of their income on rent are classified as “rent-burdened.” When algorithmic pricing pushes rents higher, more families cross that threshold. Rent-burdened households are more likely to delay medical care, skip prescriptions, and experience food insecurity. Children in rent-burdened households have higher rates of asthma, developmental delays, and chronic stress.

Eviction rates rise when rents outpace wages. Eviction is not just a legal proceeding. It is a traumatic life event associated with increased rates of depression, suicide, and substance abuse. The harm is intergenerational.

Economic Inequality

Algorithmic rent-setting accelerates wealth extraction from the bottom 80% of earners and concentrates it in the hands of institutional landlords and private equity firms. UDR, Inc. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT). Its business model depends on maximizing rent revenue. Every dollar extracted by RealPage’s algorithm is a dollar that cannot be saved, invested, or spent in the local economy.

The racial wealth gap is compounded by algorithmic rent inflation. Black and Latino households are more likely to rent than own, and they spend a higher percentage of their income on housing. When rents rise due to algorithmic collusion, the burden falls disproportionately on communities of color.

The “Cost of a Life” Metric

What Now?

The lawsuit names UDR, Inc. as the defendant. The company is a Maryland corporation with its principal place of business in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Its board of directors and executive leadership are publicly disclosed in SEC filings, but the complaint does not list them individually. If you are a tenant affected by this case, those names are available through public records.

Watchlist: Regulatory Bodies That Should Be Investigating

• U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division: Already investigating RealPage and named landlords including UDR in a federal antitrust case.
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC): Has jurisdiction over unfair and deceptive trade practices, including algorithmic pricing schemes.
• California Attorney General’s Office: Joined the DOJ’s RealPage lawsuit and has authority to enforce state consumer protection laws.
• San Diego City Attorney’s Office: Has authority to enforce the Municipal Code and could bring its own civil action against violators.
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB): Has authority over financial products and services that affect housing affordability.

What You Can Do

If you are a tenant in San Diego and you rent from UDR, Inc., you may be part of this class action. The case is in its early stages. Contact the plaintiff’s attorney, L. Timothy Fisher at Bursor & Fisher, P.A., to determine whether you are eligible to join the class.

If you rent from a different landlord and suspect they are using algorithmic pricing software, file a complaint with the San Diego City Attorney’s Office. Document everything. Request your lease file and any communications about rent increases. Public pressure works when it is organized and sustained.

Support local tenant unions and housing justice organizations. Mutual aid networks provide immediate relief while long-term policy fights continue. Organize rent strikes. Attend city council meetings. Demand enforcement of the ordinance. The law exists because tenants fought for it. Enforcement will only happen if tenants keep fighting.