<prompt> Human: First, a little back-story for me. Im a 30 year old professional with some savings, and facing some recent larger medical bills. My apartment is expensive hovers around the 30 rule, but Im willing to pay for security and peace of mind. The apartment community is managed by a large national management companychain. Im a quiet person who keeps to herself and have had no complaints from management while Ive lived here. After the first year lease my rent increased by 15 - quite a jump, but something I could manage until the next year. This year rent bumped up again, going well outside my price range. I put in my notice to vacate and plan to leave in one month.In the course of looking for new apartments I happened to look at the site for my current community and saw that they were leasing my current apartment for 80 of what they were looking to charge me - a similar price to what Id originally rented it at two years ago, and in the range of what I am looking at for new apartments. Im of course shocked and angry, and have sent a polite email to the community manager asking why there is a difference in price. Googling and asking around about this yielded little help.My questions are: 1. Is it common for large apartment communities to charge more to current or renewing tenants for leases?2. If yes, why?3. Would it be advisable to vacate my apartment doable as I have family local that I can stay with short-term and just re-lease my apartment at the new rate? Or is it not worth supporting a community with such a sketchy practice as they will likely try to up the price again next year and Ill be playing this game all over again.4. Is there ever a possibility to negotiate with these monster management companies? I tried to argue the price increase last year and was basically told take it or leave it.5. What are some reputable apartment chains? I highly value the security and convenience of professionally managed communities, but this experience has made me cautious of the lack of financial negotiating power I have with them.Thank you for your help!  <response>: Common game in my area Houston. Theyre gambling that you wont want to go through the hassle of moving. I usually like to rent a duplex or fourplex from a local landlord rather than play these games with the apartment complex. Local landlords like to jack the rent too, but its a little less systemic. 