Renting

Apartment market report (Nov. edition)

Where are prices climbing? Where can you find a bargain?

The Back Bay skyline and Charles River in Boston. Michael Dwyer/Associated Press

November 19, 2024

2 minutes to read

For Boston residents, moving far from the city center has its price, it seems.

Rents in Roslindale, West Roxbury, and Hyde Park have climbed dramatically in the past two years, according to an analysis of data from ApartmentAdvisor, an online real estate marketplace. The datasets are based on website listings available to rent for the month of October.

Let’s look at the breakdown by the number of bedrooms:

Studio apartments

Renters looking for a break on a studio apartment may want to consider the Jamaica Plain and Fenway/Kenmore. Both have seen their median rents drop from what they were two years ago. This may stem from an increase in inventory, which calms competition and helps keep prices in check.

Source: ApartmentAdvisor
Calculations: Boston.com staff
* means there weren’t enough available units to calculate an accurate median rent or the neighborhood was not part of the dataset in 2022.

One-bedroom apartments

Beacon Hill may have seen only a marginal increase in prices since October 2023, but the median cost overall is up a whopping 15.4 percent in two years. West Roxbury tops it all for price gains, with a 56 percent year-over-year jump in the median asking rent.

Prospective renters may want to scout available apartments in the North End when they pick up their pastries. Asking rents are nearly 11 percent lower than than they were in October and about 27 percent lower than they were two years ago.

Two-bedroom apartments

West Roxbury and Hyde Park are seeing substantial jumps in the median rents since October 2022: 24.4 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Bargain hunters may want to take a look at the Back Bay and South Boston, where prices have taken a dip.

Three-bedroom-plus apartments

Prices for big apartments are climbing nearly everywhere in the city, but check out Beacon Hill and Allston for deals.

The Mass. rental market

Here’s a look at October rents in the Commonwealth for a one-bedroom apartment:

The US market

Nationally, median rent prices always decrease in October, ApartmentAdvisor said in its national report. Last month, the median rent for a one-bedroom decreased nearly 2 percent to $1,510.

The biggest drops were across the South, where it's 5 percent cheaper to rent than it was at this time last year, likely due to ramped up construction, according to the report. In the Southwest, the decrease in rental prices overall was 6 percent.

Boston has moved up one spot on the price ladder to become the third most expensive city for renters in the nation. Burlington, Vt., also made the top 10, coming in at No. 9, while Portland, Maine, which RentCafé has named the nation's most livable metro, landed at No. 12.

Providence took the No. 15 spot, just behind Honolulu. Manchester, N.H., and Hartford also made the top 100 list, at No. 22 and 43, respectively.

See the full list below:

RANK	CITY	MEDIAN RENT 1 BEDROOM	MEDIAN RENT 2 BEDROOM
1	New York City	$3,600	$4,450
2	San Francisco	$2,892	$3,986
3	Boston	$2,877	$3,300
4	Jersey City	$2,765	$4,336
5	San Jose, Calif.	$2,488	$3,030
6	Newark	$2,351	$1,988
7	Washington, D.C.	$2,300	$3,005
8	San Diego	$2,295	$2,899
9	Burlington, Vt.	$2,188	$2,950
10	Miami	$2,182	$2,768
11	Los Angeles	$2,150	$2,895
12	Portland, Maine	$2,100	$2,441
13	Chicago	$2,075	$2,547
14	Honolulu	$1,995	$2,500
15	Providence	$1,950	$1,850
16	Charleston, S.C.	$1,917	$2,359
17	Oakland, Calif.	$1,895	$2,505
18	Riverside, Calif.	$1,815	$2,200
19	Seattle	$1,805	$2,495
20	Tampa	$1,739	$1,850
21	Ann Arbor, Mich.	$1,725	$2,372
22	Manchester, N.H.	$1,700	$1,900
23	St. Petersburg, Fla.	$1,600	$1,931
24	Savannah	$1,600	$1,775
25	Atlanta	$1,595	$2,038
26	Denver	$1,585	$2,150
27	Sacramento	$1,540	$1,950
28	Virginia Beach, Va.	$1,520	$1,765
29	Nashville	$1,499	$1,708
30	Portland, Ore.	$1,471	$1,790
31	Orlando	$1,468	$1,750
32	Charlotte, N.C.	$1,435	$1,625
33	Madison, Wis.	$1,405	$1,796
34	New Orleans	$1,400	$1,350
35	Fresno, Calif.	$1,395	$1,610
36	Detroit, Mich.	$1,395	$1,070
37	Grand Rapids, Mich.	$1,375	$1,400
38	Wilmington, Del.	$1,375	$1,263
39	Baltimore	$1,354	$1,685
40	Philadelphia	$1,350	$1,600
41	Richmond, Va.	$1,348	$1,525
42	Boise, Idaho	$1,316	$1,400
43	Hartford	$1,300	$1,575
44	Phoenix	$1,300	$1,589
45	Pittsburgh	$1,300	$1,495
46	St. Paul	$1,299	$1,719
47	Fort Worth	$1,292	$1,540
48	Austin, Texas	$1,274	$1,628
49	Houston	$1,265	$1,549
50	Dallas	$1,258	$1,721
51	Raleigh, N.C.	$1,255	$1,507
52	Reno	$1,250	$1,578
53	Las Vegas	$1,250	$1,579
54	Columbus, Ohio	$1,248	$1,345
55	Billings, Mont.	$1,213	$1,331
56	Anchorage	$1,200	$1,700
57	Salt Lake City	$1,195	$1,441
58	Jacksonville, Fla.	$1,180	$1,375
59	Minneapolis	$1,150	$1,643
60	Buffalo, N.Y.	$1,100	$1,090
61	Cleveland	$1,095	$1,095
62	Colorado Springs	$1,087	$1,450
63	Kansas City, Mo.	$1,077	$1,250
64	Rochester, N.Y.	$1,050	$1,250
65	San Antonio	$1,050	$1,303
66	Memphis	$1,049	$1,050
67	Augusta, Ga.	$1,045	$1,090
68	Milwaukee	$1,038	$1,155
69	Greensboro, N.C.	$1,034	$1,250
70	Tallahassee, Fla.	$1,025	$1,230
71	Des Moines, Iowa	$1,004	$1,085
72	Indianapolis	$1,004	$1,321
73	Spokane, Wash.	$1,000	$1,295
74	Charleston, W.V.	$1,000	$1,175
75	Huntsville, Ala.	$989	$1,174
76	Cincinnati	$985	$1,370
77	Fargo, N.D.	$975	$1,075
78	Albuquerque	$975	$1,275
79	Omaha	$955	$1,215
80	Little Rock, Ark.	$950	$1,025
81	Sioux Falls, S.D.	$950	$1,127
82	St. Louis	$950	$1,295
83	Cheyenne, Wyo.	$950	$1,100
84	Birmingham, Ala.	$948	$1,049
85	Lexington, Ky.	$925	$1,250
86	Fayetteville, N.C.	$904	$1,150
87	Corpus Christi, Texas	$899	$1,166
88	Tucson	$895	$1,195
89	Louisville, Ky.	$895	$1,073
90	Fort Wayne, Ind.	$895	$1,050
91	Baton Rouge, La.	$890	$1,098
92	Oklahoma City	$887	$1,100
93	Jackson, Miss.	$875	$995
94	El Paso	$875	$1,128
95	Tulsa, Okla.	$845	$1,168
96	Lincoln, Neb.	$829	$1,115
97	Cedar Rapids, Iowa	$795	$1,050
98	Toledo, Ohio	$770	$875
99	Akron, Ohio	$763	$938
100	Wichita	$695	$898