Houses are unique and have irreducible transaction costs which makes the market for them very inefficient and slow relative to a commodity. For one example, if you are in the market for a 3-bedroom house with a garage, the market is already segmented much more narrowly than can be the case in an efficient market like that for a commodity. If you have to move into one as soon as possible for a new job, and you know closing will take a minimum of 3 months, the market for your prospective houses is going to be extremely small without even factoring in other distinctive characteristics like driving distance and schools. 4% of the aggregate market may represent 25-30% of your “market” nonetheless.
Thanks for that! I guess I don't see how there could be market manipulation without also damaging the manipulator, especially in a market that is as transparent as housing, with nearly every sale being at a public price.
Rental manipulation is much much easier, and probably more prevalent. But unfortunately the price-gouging lawsuits from using software to share pricing information have been settled with the landlords paying peanuts.