2023 Back Bay Apartment Rental Market Report

Record high rent prices and record low inventory is the trend for Boston’s most expensive apartment rental market, Back Bay. Average rent price for Back Bay apartments is currently at a record high of $3,998 and will pass the $4,000 soon. Real-time availability rate (RTAR) peaked at 2.61% in early April, marking the second consecutive year that apartment availability failed to surpass 3% at the seasonal peak. In years past, that figure would typically peak well above 4%, but now the market is tighter than ever. Here are the trends driving Back Bay’s apartment rental market.
Unprecedented Rental Supply Shortage in Back Bay

The current real-time availability rate (RTAR) in Back Bay is 1.71%. That figure is down -3.93% year-over-year and down -57.99% from its pre-pandemic level in May 2019 (4.07%). Back Bay’s RTAR hit an all-time low in October of last year when it bottomed out at 0.18%.