Boston’s Rental Market Recovery Stumbles In Downtown Markets

Recent housing market reports suggest that Boston’s apartment availability is even lower than it was prior to the pandemic. The current apartment availability rate of apartments for rent in Boston is 2.49%, which is -45.03% lower than its January 2020 level. This might be great news for landlords in Boston, but it’s a bit unnerving to renters considering that apartment availability was already at historic lows two years ago before COVID came to town.

So it seems after a year of unprecedented apartment supply surplus that Boston’s rental market has returned to its normal stingy and scrappy self. If anything, the rental market has shifted even more in favor of landlords, as the current availability rate suggests that it will be harder to find an apartment this year than it has been in years past. From an onlooker’s perspective, it’s easy to attribute the market’s supply issues and subsequent recovery to remote learning. But that’s not the whole story.