So my wife and I moved into our place a year ago and our rent is $ 1300 month . The realtor before told us that the rend had been dropped from $ 1800 month from the pervious tenants , and we got a steal of a deal . We are planning to buy our own place and when we leave I expect the place won ' t be rented for anything over $ 1200 month . If our landlord was smart and banked all the bonus money over what their mortgage payments are , they should be able to easily pay for the vacant place for over a year . I don ' t feel that most landlords did this , and instead of banking for a downturn , spent the extra money on a new truck or a new snowmobile . Renting a place is the same as running a business but they so often do not treat it as such . Don ' t blame the shitty economy on your shitty business sense .