Boston Apartment Rental Market Mid Year Report

We are halfway through 2022 and the apartment rental market in Boston has never looked stronger. Apartment inventory levels are at historic lows while average rent prices continue to break through all-time highs with each passing week. Even more impressive, we’re just 14 months removed from when the Real-Time Availability Rate (RTAR) of Boston apartments surged to an unprecedented 13% due to COVID lockdowns, remote work, and distance based learning. To call it a market turn-around would be an understatement. Words can not properly encompass how fast we watched demand pour right back into the Greater Boston housing market.
Boston Apartment Availability Hovers at Historic Lows

Boston’s current RTAR is at a mind numbingly low 3.38% and trending downwards. That marks a -68.50% drop in apartment availability year-over-year and a -32.53% decrease from its pre-pandemic level in June 2019. What that means for renters in Boston is that they are seeing nearly a third less available apartment inventory in 2022 than they were prior to COVID.