We are a small facility in Florida and have noticed a slow down as well. We had been running almost 100% occupied until the middle of last year and then started to notice an increase in vacancies. For the past 9 months or so we have been running 80-85% occuppied and we are locking up a lot more people after the 6th of the month for non-payment - but luckily we have had good luck with the collections process - have several customers on payment plans. Easiest way to get those folks to 'pay' up if you are offering a move in special (i.e first month free) is to have them do a 2 month pre-pay. We just had a customer who rented 2 units for 2 months, move out in only a matter of a few weeks - but we got paid and he failed to provide us with 30 days written notice. We actually came out ahead, assuming we can get those two units re-rented soon. Hope this information helps.

Janet