Landlord is making re-rental improssible!

We continued our lease in May of 2009 for another year. In July, we decided to move into a house and gave landlord our notice 1.5 months prior to vacating the place. Landlord indicated that he is going to charge us a re-rent fee of $400, and plus that we are responsible for the rent until he finds a new tenant. However, when he advertised the apartment, he increased the cost of the unit from $610 to $630, with no improvements made to the unit. We have heard that anyone who looks at the apartment does not want to rent it because it is too expensive. My question is - Can landlord change the terms of the lease agreement when he is trying to re-rent the apartment to release our contract? What if he decides to go $700 tomorrow... He is making re-rental almost improssible by setting a higher cost and also requiring a new tenant to have a good credit score. What can we do about this? Please advise.

[sunlover]

He is doing nothing illegal. You signed a lease and are on the hook for rent until it expires

A 3% increase in rent isn't going to make the place unrentable. He can ask for reasonable rent increases. You are only on the hook for the rent amount in the lease, not the increase he is asking for.