Unfortunately, your Lease renewal happened before the rents were being lowered. We absolutely have no way of knowing that that is going to happen. Our rents were lowered for a very short period of time due to the rise in leases being terminated early (within 30 days). Residents were terminating their lease to take advantage of the tax credit being offered to first time buyers. We had no way of knowing this was going to happen so we had to react quickly. As I said it was for a VERY short period of time. The rents returned to the original amount right away. We do symapathize with your situation and love having you as our long term residents. However we have no control over rising costs of being in business and paying higher real estate taxes, etc... If we keep rents the same for one resident we must do it for all and that would not keep us in business for very long. It would also jeopardize being able to provide you with the level of housing that you have become accustomed to in the last 5 years. Again thank you for being such great residents and we look forward to you spending many more years with us.