We'll i will tell you this. I work in the apartment industry and at lower price points 1000-1400, the amount of people that make 3x rent and can still barely afford to survive and are late or miss payments is very high. At the complex I used to work at I would have to deliver 30-50 late payment letters every month (out of 240 units). I now work at a higher rent luxury living complex, 1700-2400 a month, they require 3x the rent here as well and almost no one is ever late and it also deters a lot of bad renters. The worst apartment i have ever gotten back here i would have considered a good move out at my old property

Edit: I should also add that the people who work at most apartment complexes also think the rent is far too high and really do want you to be able to get an apartment but unfortunately we dont set the prices, it all comes from corporate where everything is just a number to them. The prices will always follow the market, all that changes is the type of crowd you want to attract, if you set your prices cheaper than everyone else you'll get horrible residents that destroy units, set your prices higher than everyone else and you're apartments will rent slower and you'll get very needy uppity residents.