If you’re a property investor in Boston, you’re probably aware that cap rates have been super low in the core neighborhoods of the city. Prices for Boston real estate have skyrocketed to absurdity, making it difficult to find profitable investments in the city’s core neighborhoods. Right now, the suburbs are carrying the best average cap rates in the Boston metropolitan area without question. In fact, the top 10 best metro neighborhoods by average cap rate are all located outside of Boston proper.

In order to calculate the average cap rate for a neighborhood, we’re projecting yearly revenue based on the current average rent price in that area multiplied by twelve. We’re using the median sale price for each area and property type as the cap rate denominator.

Based on this math, we can get a rough estimate of what an average cap rate would look like for a neighborhood. Here are the top 4 neighborhoods by average cap rate in Metro Boston:

Times are tough for first-time buyers in Boston’s highly competitive and expensive real estate market. Home prices are at all-time highs, inventory has remained low, and now with interest rates going up, it may seem that home ownership is slipping further away from reach.

Despite its challenges, the housing market in Boston still provides some areas of opportunity for home buyers. Believe it or not, you can still find houses for under $500K in areas that are not too far from Boston’s core neighborhoods. Here are some of the best places to buy Boston real estate in 2022.

After 18 months of rental supply glut, the Cambridge rental market appears like its back on track. After surpassing Brookline in 2019 as Boston’s most expensive suburb to rent an apartment, rent prices tumbled during the pandemic on account of a surge in apartment vacancies and a drop in occupancy. Now the most recent rental data for Cambridge MA shows that the year-over-year change in Cambridge’s average rent price is back in positive figures, and in March it currently sits at +1.53% compared to 12 months ago.

The average rent price for Cambridge apartments was down year-over-year by -6.58% in May of last year. This was a result of a huge +534.88% year-over-year increase in vacancies that was recorded in March of 2021 in Cambridge. Since remote learning was nixed in March of last year, the market rebounded drastically and absorbed much of the vacant inventory in the months that followed.

Now, the current vacancy rate of 0.95% is closing in on the all-time low of 0.86% recorded in March of 2020, which has reignited landlord confidence. Now the current average rent price of $2,796 in Cambridge marks a 1.53% increase from a year ago. With 5 months to go until vacancies hit their cyclical low point, it looks like apartment occupancy will break records in 2022, which will inevitably push rent prices even higher.

With all of the new high rise developments built in Boston over the past decade, there have been tens of thousands of new luxury apartments added to Boston’s rental inventory. Still, if you’re searching online for Boston luxury apartments, you will find that many of the listings have inaccurate and/or outdated information.

Property management companies are notorious for not updating their rent pricing and inventory levels. So, when you are looking at listings on various apartment portals, there is a good chance that the price for that apartment may have changed, or worse, that there are no longer any units available for rent in that building.

Still, despite the lack of reliable information, we can still get a good picture of what neighborhoods have the most options to select from overall. The following neighborhoods have the highest inventory of luxury apartment rentals in Boston. And remember, if you’re ever in doubt about the price or availability of a luxury apartment, call the management company directly. They’ll know the correct information right away and can help you spare yourself from the rental runaround.

South End’s apartment rental market has emerged from the pandemic stronger than ever. The most recent South End apartment data shows both apartment availability and vacancy rates have surpassed their previous all-time lows. South End is currently sitting on 99.7% occupancy with an availability rate of 2.86%, which is 22.28% lower than its pre-pandemic level in March of 2019.

South End’s vacancy rate hit its all-time low mark in November of 2021, when it dropped to a slim 0.40%. Apartment availability eclipsed its all-time low just two months earlier in September when it fell to 0.87%. That marked a -45.96% drop from the previous all-time low set in October of 2019 before the pandemic began.

Even more impressive is the fact that the vacancy rate for South End apartments typically hits its cyclical low in late August before the pivotal 9/1 leasing date, when most leases begin in Boston. With 5 months remaining until late August, it’s not unthinkable that apartment occupancy will reach 100% before September of this year.

Just three months into 2022, there are barely any vacant apartments in Fenway. That is especially astounding considering that just 18 months ago, Fenway’s rental market was flipped upside down when the vacancy rate climbed to an unprecedented 17.59% as a result of remote learning policies that took effect at local Universities.

In the year that followed, we saw a market recovery unlike anything we’d ever seen. From September 2020 to September 2021, the vacancy rate plummeted from 17.59% to 3.02%, an unprecedented 82.83% drop. The free-fall was far from over, as the vacancy rate continued to fall throughout Q4 2021 and into Q1 of this year. Now the vacancy rate for Fenway apartments sits at 0.14%, the lowest recorded level by far.

Vacancy rate is not the only apartment supply metric in Fenway that has hit all-time lows. The availability rate for apartments in Fenway dropped 47% below its previous all-time low in November of 2021. Fenway apartment availability bottomed out at a paltry 0.72% in December of 2021 before trending back upward at the beginning of the year. Now the availability rate of 6.61% is significantly lower than its pre-pandemic level of 10.69% in March of 2019.

By the looks of the most recent apartment data in Boston, it appears that rent growth in Boston’s suburbs is outpacing that of the city coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like so many other US real estate markets, housing demand was higher in suburban areas than it was in Boston throughout most of the pandemic. Boston’s core markets endured major supply upheaval as a result of remote learning and remote work, while many of Boston’s suburbs saw a relatively low amount of disruption.

This shift in demand has resulted in a -2.06% loss in Boston’s average rent price compared to January 2020, prior to COVID coming to town. Compare that to Boston’s suburban average rent drop of -1.01%, you can see that prices are down more than twice as much in Boston proper as they are in the burbs.

Surprisingly, out of the 12 suburban areas closest to Boston, only four have recorded increases compared to their pre pandemic levels.

Endometriosis is a reproductive disorder affecting 2-10% of American women. It can cause pain and discomfort in the reproductive organs, and is one of the leading causes of infertility in women.

Endometriosis, or endo, occurs when the endometrial tissue that normally lines the walls of the uterus begins to form on the outside of the uterine cavity. Your normal menstrual cycle flushes this tissue out each month, but not in the case of endometriosis because it is growing outside of the uterus. It becomes stuck where it develops, and it can cause irritation to the surrounding tissue that can lead to scarring, lesions, fibrous tissue, and/or cysts to develop.

Symptoms of endo are similar to those of normal menstruation, but are typically more painful and/or severe. Some of the symptoms of endo include but are not limited to:

The number of Boston condos for sale is limited right now, especially below the $500,000 price point. That being said, there is usually a constant demand for Boston condos. Many are still receiving multiple offers within 24 hours of being listed. While we have seen a slight decline in Boston condos and single family home sales overall, both rising inflation and mortgage rates, as well as low inventory, are primary contributing factors.

While the average price per square foot in Boston is $832 per SF, that varies across neighborhoods. For example, in the Seaport District, the average price per square foot of a condo is $1,596. In Downtown Boston, it is $1,157/SF and in Back Bay it’s $1,320. West Roxbury is one of the more affordable neighborhoods, at $444/ SF along with Roslindale at $466. It’s also worth mentioning that the price per square foot is typically lower for larger homes. This means that if you’re looking to purchase a 1- bedroom condo, the price per square foot will likely be higher than if you were purchasing a 3- bedroom condo in the same area, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good deal overall.

Pitchbook recently released their NVCA Venture Monitor for 2021, and Boston has again set a record high for venture capital funding. Last year, Boston-based startups attracted $34.9 billion in capital funding. For the fifth consecutive year, Boston ranked 3rd highest among all metros in their regional spotlight, behind New York and San Francisco.

According to Pitchbook’s data, Boston saw a 194.9% increase in total VC capital compared to 2020. Nationwide the amount of VC funding nearly doubled to $329 billion, up from $166.6B in 2020. Boston, New York, and San Francisco hold a lion’s share of this total funding, with the 3 metros accounting for over $205B of all venture capital funding in the US. Miami, New York, Chicago and Denver saw the biggest YOY increases in total capital funding, all of which saw total dollars invested increase by more than 240% year-over-year.

For Boston, this means even more opportunities flowing to the metropolitan area in the form of white collar tech and science jobs. This comes along with news that Massachusetts actually lost residents for the second year in a row after a decades long span of population growth. Despite the state’s net loss of residents, Boston continues to grow in population thanks in large part to the amount of new opportunity flowing to the area and steadily increasing enrollment at local universities.