Rents are higher than they’ve ever been in Boston, and there are a number of reasons.
“We are coming out of COVID,” said Melvin Viera Jr., president of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors.
According to Rent.com, the average cost of a studio apartment in Boston is $3,056, up 16% from a year ago. A 1-bedroom costs an average of $3,936, up 14%, and a 2-bedroom at $4,799, up 6%.
But now COVID is fading, and Viera says that’s got people thinking.
“People are starting to realize that, ‘Hey, can I live in the city again.’ In addition, we also have a lot of colleges, so you have this pressing demand,” he said.
Cambridge Councilor Burhan Azeem has experienced both ends of it. As NBC10 Boston reported last month, he struggled to find an affordable apartment in Cambridge, where the vacancy rate is 1%.
“Rents were going up. You applied to a place, and within 30 minutes they had enough applicants and they were closing. You showed up at the place and they were like, ‘Well, the last tenant actually offered to pay $100 in more per month just to close that. Is that something you can do?” Azeem said.
It’s quite a contrast to what he’s dealt with apartment hunting during COVID-19.
“You would go to a place and they would give you one month free rent, two months free rent,” he recalled. “Where I got to, we were able to negotiate and pay $3,000 less than what we would have before because of the weather during COVID.
Azeem now pays $1,000 a month with three roommates.