"Shortly after Sept. 11, there was almost no traffic throughout our system for the better part of two to three years," says President and CEO Douglas Crocker II. "Slowly, rental traffic has started to build, though not to the level we'd normally see."

Job losses and corporate housing cancellations have created an uptick in move-outs that Equity Residential has been unable to stop, Crocker says. Adds COO Gerald Spector, "There's clearly been an acceleration in incentives that really has been occurring since last summer. Going into next year, it depends on where you bring your rental rates down. Rental rates have dropped, and they're going to be settling into new levels."

Spector adds concessions probably will continue to increase in 2002 as other multifamily owners strive to increase occupancies. AMLI Management Co. President Robert S. Aisner said last week parent AMLI Residential also was seeing concessions creeping into the market, as well as slow traffic and a large spike in turnover.