Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the Harold Daggett of Massachusetts housing.
You remember Daggett, the high-flying head of the International Longshoreman’s Association who pulls down $900k a year as he threatens to “cripple” the U.S. economy?
When he’s not (literally) driving his Bentley or sailing his 76-foot yacht, he’s pontificating on the evils of technology. In particular, E-Z Pass.
“All those union jobs are gone, and it’s all EZ-Pass,” Daggett complained in a recent interview. “Everybody got an EZ- Pass on the window, and they go through like it’s nothing.”
“Someone has to get into Congress and say, ‘Whoa. Time out. Machines gotta stop.’”
If you’d like to return to sitting in traffic waiting for change at a Mass Pike tollbooth, Liz Warren and Co. have got a deal for you.
Like the doleful Daggett, Warren, Sen. Ed Markey, and Rep. Seth Moulton want to “stop the machines” landlords use to set the smartest price — also known as “dynamic pricing” — for rental units. They have written 13 property management companies with residential properties in the Bay State demanding to know if they’re using RealPage software to help them set prices.
RealPage uses data and algorithms to help owners find the best price to offer for their properties. Given that Boston is ranked among the most difficult cities for prospective Gen Z home shoppers to buy a property, demand for rentals continues to rise. Across Massachusetts, home sales have reached the lowest levels since 2008.
Not surprisingly, AI and algorithms used in nearly every sector of the economy have made their way to the housing market. Many renters and homebuyers are taking advantage of AI-powered virtual tours while also benefiting from manual paperwork process automation, more efficient and accurate data analysis, and granular inventory searches.
In other words, shoppers are using more information to get a better rental deal. In turn, rental companies are using this data to help find the ideal price.
Liz Warren hates it. And she’s not alone. The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit that also demonizes market value calculated by algorithm.
This is upside down.
Analytics programs present new possibilities for producers to set the right product prices. Data-driven pricing systems help property owners and would-be renters track demand, pricing, inventory and more, enabling all players in the rental game to capitalize on opportunities. Zillow, for example, alerts potential homebuyers in real-time of property price cuts.
Progressives like Warren and Markey are right that there’s a housing shortage in the Bay State and beyond. According to Zillow, the housing shortage has grown to 4.5 million homes. Adding insult to injury, prices across the board are now up nearly 20 percent since President Biden took office.
However, the reason isn’t evil AI or the courage of data analytics. It’s a lack of supply, made worse by NIMBY zoning policies backed by affluent progressives. (Hello, Milton, Mass.?)
Economics 101 should point America in the direction of building more homes, both single-family and multifamily. But that’s not where the focus of lawmakers like Liz Warren has been. They see a problem and then look for an evil “big business” to blame for it.
Once again, she’s wrong. Around 7 percent of rentals in the United States are managed using RealPage’s price recommendation software. What’s more, the rents that RealPage calculates based on actual market data are mere recommendations that customers accept less than half the time, according to the company.
Liz Warren and her soulmate Harold Daggett would undoubtedly like to see would-be renters and landlords bent over the want ads with a pencil in hand, guessing prices, circling leads, and calling each other on their rotary phones.
Rather than blaming rising housing costs on platforms that do math using rental market data, how about rolling back regulations and setting the private sector free to build more housing?
Because more freedom means less thuggery. And “Dock Worker” Warren isn’t interested in that.
Michael Graham is Managing Editor at InsideSources.
Reprinted with permission from DC Journal – By Michael Graham
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
That woman is in the same category as Harris, no brain. Should dems win in Nov. that would be a dream come true for her and all the control freaks like her, housing shortage? We ain’t seen nothing yet. There will be shortage of everything. Not for the likes of her or the Union bosses, will there still be Union if the worker is the boss?
People in mental hospitals have more common sense than Lissy
There is no housing shortage.There are millions of homes everywhere.There is a surplus of people wanting to own homes they can’t afford.Why not add some tax surcharge to registered Democrats’ taxes,to pay for importing millions of more people,who need and can’t afford a home?
Her and her gang or should I say cult should have been voted out a long time ago.
We need to stop inventing stuff that improves customer service or product performance or lowers the cost of production? That would be like telling James Watt that his patents on steam engines could not be commercialized because it would put sailing ships and all of their employees out of work or telling Alexander Graham Bell that his telephone was a great idea, but what would it do to the jobs of telegraph operators? Airplanes destroyed much of long distance train travel and related jobs and the Internet stopped letter writing and destroyed the jobs of people who made those beautiful note cards my mother used to send to people. We may not like technology at times, but trying to stop it is a fool’s mission. Unfortunately we will never remove all fools from positions of power.
Incredibly disingenuous of “them” to be approving AI technology hubs in places that already don’t have the power infrastructure (green to the rescue!) to support them, then turn around an say NO to technology that helps make renting easier for tenant and landlord. And don’t even get me started on the union guys…be gone-all of you! Put mostly robots in the ports unloading container ships and let the prices go down.
Dems WANT to raise rents & mortage rates
If harris is installed as potus, grey beaver will be chief economic adviser.
Warren is like Biden Harris they want to control everything and when it goes wrong blame Trump. They don’t have another plan to put in place. Or relax the rules. There is a shortage of housing which drives the prices up. Only the dem leaders like Warren, Biden, Harris never can put a plan together. Mayorkas said FEMA has no money. Video after video we hear from people in the Helene storm zone FEMA has denied entry to rescue organizations, helicopters have been forbidden to fly in because of this regulation OR THAT put in place by FEMA. Or FEMA was here said we need everything but never returned. Private helicopters who flew people out were told if they continued they would be arrested. It was not Trump who said that, it was the people in the storm zone. 750 dollar was offered by Harris and then the people were told they had to apply. How were they going to that when their house has drifted to the next town and they have no computer or phone or WiFi to apply. Then some people were told you don’t qualify or you get 300 dollar or you have to pay back this money. Trump didn’t start these situations the people affected by the hurricane are experiencing this. I think they know what is going on. Biden Harris had nothing in place in North Carolina. No plans pre hurricane destruction. Biden and Harris were both AWOL during Helene and now they are as always make it political and blame Trump. It makes me so angry that Alexa said cloud seeding had occurred during hurricane Helene and now Biden says that was nonsense. Just like the border was secure the past 4 years. That wasn’t true either. But 25 million people crawled in anyway how is it possible that Biden is still president of America. And now we have a candidate that can’t think of one thing she would have done different from Biden. You know 4 more years of lies manipulation and blame pushed to those citizens that did not vote for them. SAVE AMERICA AND SAVE THE PEOPLE AND VOTE TRUMP/VANCE. YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.
Funny, since many on the left have claimed we should no longer have single family homes. While they live in gated communities, they have advocated multi-family units as a cure for the housing shortage. I wonder how much tech she and her buddies use to communicate, get their news, do their finances, drive, whatever. It seems average Americans shouldn’t enjoy that privilege, too. She is a nightmare.
Hell, I’m thinking at my age, all I need is a good lot and a travel trailer big enough for me and my dogs to be happy!
But considering her “native American” heritage, doesn’t she live in a tee pee?
Indigenous Peoples didn’t rent anything, they shared; she being “indigenous”, she has little knowledge of the process of renting or pricing thereto, but ironically, has a very money-grabbing personality, like the evil white invaders that took her lands, that her tribe took from others before they came.
more gov overreach everything the gov takes from the private sector always fails look at student loans
Dumb@$$ democrats have no clue as to economics. Econ 101 teaches supply and demand. Increase the supply to exceed the demand you get lower prices. When the demand exceeds supply prices go up, fricken basic.
So when Biden/Harris opened the gates to the nation and millions of illegals entered the demand increased well beyond the manufacturing of homes, therefor prices increased accordingly. Unfortunately that has put many citizen home buyers behind the curve as they have been priced out of homes, new and old!
Same concept works with those illegal immigrants. When the federal and state governments are offering them thousands of dollars, IE the supply side, the number of illegals violating US sovereignty, the demand side, increases. Like I said, democrats have no clue.
One out of 3 Biden/Harris supporters are just as dumb as the other 2!
It seems like all democ rats have the same philosophy,i’ll face north,my hands will be back of me,just fill them with bribes,AND I will be back for more,but this time with a five gallon bucket.
Like everyone on the left. They don’t look for a root cause and try to address that, they look for “victims” and who to blame.
A person spends a lot of money buying a home in some neighborhood they like.The YIMBY’s,like Amac,change the rules and zoining,making the neighborhood into sardine living,lowering the price of the home bought.Not nice.