One of the first major housing initiatives under Portland’s new form of government is on track to return to City Council after being derailed by concerns that it would attract lawsuits.
Portland City Council’s housing committee voted on Oct. 7 to advance an ordinance that would ban landlords from using high-tech software that’s been blamed for pushing up rents and withholding open units in cities already struggling with housing costs.
The ordinance would target products like YieldStar, property management software made by Texas-based tech company RealPage that allows competing landlords to share non-public information about what they charge for rents. The software then runs that information through an algorithm that suggests rental prices.
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“Portland City Council has the opportunity to deter and penalize this practice that takes money out of our communities,” Lauren Armony, a manager with the Welcome Home Coalition, told the council’s Homelessness and Housing Committee earlier this month. “It will give tenants another tool to fight against unjust rental practices.”
Councilor Angelita Morillo, the ordinance’s main sponsor, has said that algorithmic rent-setting software has been used in price-fixing and is contributing to expensive rents and evictions. She and other councilors introduced the ordinance earlier this year over the objections of landlords and real estate interests who argued it would ensnare many common business practices and end up worsening housing affordability.
Councilors have since revised the ordinance to address those concerns. But many landlords say it still goes too far, setting up a familiar clash between landlords and progressive members of the council as the ordinance advances toward a vote.
Ongoing lawsuits
High-tech algorithmic tools used to set rents have come under scrutiny as housing prices have skyrocketed across the country.
The Biden administration’s Council of Economic Advisers in 2024 estimated that algorithmic rent pricing cost renters an additional $3.8 billion the previous year.
Property management tech companies RealPage and Yardi have been the target of lawsuits. Notably, the U.S. Department of Justice along with 10 state attorneys general — including Oregon — brought an anti-trust suit against RealPage.
As the lawsuit dragged on, a wave of cities including — Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Berkeley and Seattle — enacted ordinances on rental pricing software.
Suzy Deuster, Morillo’s policy adviser, estimated landlords accused of using the software for price fixing in federal litigation manage more than 32,000 rental units in Portland.
Portland City Council was on track earlier this year to vote on a similar ordinance. But in April, the council referred the ordinance back to the Housing and Homelessness Committee at Morillo’s request, who suggested it needed further revisions to protect it from potential legal challenges.
Weeks earlier, RealPage sued the city of Berkeley over its ordinance banning landlords from using software to set rental prices. The lawsuit argued that Berkeley’s ban was based on misinformation, violated free speech protections and banned landlords from using any computational analysis to set rents.
Targeting price-fixing, not Excel spreadsheets
Opponents of Portland’s ordinance have similarly argued that landlords could inadvertently run afoul of it by sharing information in their normal course of business or by using Google, Zillow or Microsoft Excel.
The revised ordinance now spells out what would not be considered price-fixing. Acceptable activities would include routine property management activities, as well as appraisals, feasibility studies or market research. The ordinance would also allow collecting, analyzing or communicating public data that does not include private information.
However, the ordinance would forbid landlords from engaging in these activities if they were intended to make coordinated decisions.
“We wanted to ensure that it was as precise as possible and that the city would be protected just because of the complicated nature of this language,” Morillo said at the Oct. 7 meeting of the Housing and Homelessness Committee.
Tenants could use the ordinance to take their landlords to court and would be awarded amounts between $100 to $1,000 for each violation, depending on the size of the property. The city attorney’s office could also open investigations. Landlords could claim an affirmative defense, showing they could not have reasonably known a product or service was used for price fixing.
Additionally, the ordinance exempts regulated and subsidized affordable housing. Forthcoming amendments would also exempt Home Forward, the agency that manages federal housing vouchers, and landlords who own five or fewer units.
Protect landlords? Or prevent evictions?
However, groups representing landlords and other business interests are still worried about the ordinance.
Zach Lindahl, lobbyist for landlord group Multifamily NW, wrote in written testimony that the fines are too high and would scare off investors. He also said the updated ordinance could affect property management companies that oversee dozens of properties with different ownership structures.
Joe Gardner, a lobbyist representing RealPage, told the committee that the ordinance’s new language still fell short.
“The City Council has made positive strides in recent months trying to remove some of the onerous obstacles that have strangled investment and residential construction in Portland for years,” he said. “If passed, this ordinance would wipe out all that recent good work.”
He said the ordinance’s exemptions still included “poorly worded caveats and sweeping qualifiers” that would place unconstitutional restrictions on the use of publicly available information. A prolonged court case accusing the city of violating the rights of housing providers would hurt Portland’s reputation, he said.
Councilor Jamie Dunphy said later during the hearing that “the most common legal filings with regard to housing is eviction, not lawsuits against landlords.”
Next stop: full vote
The ordinance passed out of the committee with Councilor Dan Ryan casting the only vote against it.
Ryan said during the meeting that he was a “little disappointed” there hadn’t been more outreach to critics of the ordinance. He also asked if there was evidence cities that banned the use of algorithmic rent pricing had seen decreases in rent as a result.
Deuster, Morillo’s policy adviser, responded that the ordinances are still relatively new and it will take time to evaluate their impact. She added that the negative effects of these tools have been documented over the past several years.
The ordinance has not yet been scheduled for a vote by the full council.
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This article appears in October 22, 2025.