The home ownership rate in America has declined significantly since the housing crisis of 2007-2009, currently resting at its lowest rate since 1965, with a material contributing factor being that millennial home ownership rate is very low, of which there are many reasons, the two most significant being: student loan overhang, and lack of income/assets. All of this combined, means that in a nation that increases its population each and every year, that more people than ever are renting homes, renting apartments, or renting basements, in order to have a place to live.
Those that rent out property range from individual investors, to REITs, to non-profits, to limited liability partnerships as well as limited liability companies, and because apartment complexes of more than 100 units cost a lot of money, the biggest apartment complexes are typically owned by limited liability partnerships or limited liability companies, to more readily have access to the appropriate amount of money to buy as well as to maintain these behemoth apartment complexes.
In this apartment business, growth can come organically, by building new apartment complexes, or by modifying or re-invigorating what is already own; or conversely by outright buying apartment complexes from those that are looking to sell, for whatever reason, of which, one of them may be, lack of the means or desire to effectively compete against rising competition. Because the cost of borrowing money from banking institutions are low, as well as the fact that vacancy rates are historically low, in a business that appears fundamentally sound, the access to money for those that have pristine credit, pristine balance sheets, and well constructed business plans is excellent. This means that in the last decade, the opportunity to buy out, merge, occupy, or acquire apartment complexes has increased significantly in the apartment business.
On the one hand, renters that live in complexes, in which the owners have deep pockets, long-term plans, and run an efficient operation, would seem to be beneficiaries of such consolidation and organization, yet, on the other hand, apartment owners are wont to charge at some point for the material improvements, along with bells and whistles, added to their apartments, so as to recover monies spent or invested in improving them, therefore, for every upgrade, the renter will sooner or later, end up paying for it.
So too, when apartment complexes are bought out from one owner to another, it the price is high, the immediate beneficiary is the previous owner, but the new owner, that has paid perhaps a bit above market for such a property, has already anticipated that they will recover such in the coming years, by increasing the rental price in order to make the numbers work effectively for them. Additionally, those in the business of apartment management have organizations that they are members of, in which, rather than seeing their competitors or fellow owners, as opponents, see them more akin to investors in the same sort of game, in which, that game is to maximize their investment and profits, and not necessarily to undercut each other.
In point of fact, as large apartment complexes become consolidated into fewer and fewer hands in which the demand for their product is high, those owners have every incentive to want to have "friendly" relations with each other so as to improve their collective bottom lines, and as owners they own the product, in which, the renters of such, don't have a lot of good viable options, and certainly don't have the power to change the game to their favor, leaving them to have to pay the man just a few dollars more.