“Rent is very seasonal based on my observation for the last 5 years. The differences can be as much as 20% between winter and summer”

I call BS on this one – 20% difference???

Not in any of my bread-and-butter rentals or any of the comps that I followed in order to set my rental rates – perhaps you are referring to higher end rentals like above $2500/mo?

What does happen in the winter is that it becomes harder to rent a vacant unit so landlords become more flexible – having a vacancy in Nov, Dec, Jan really sucks because very few people are looking to move in that timeframe

But to drop a $1200 rent to $960, or a $1800 rent to $1440 – no, I don’t think so

Face it, vacancies are increasing and rents are declining