As you learned right here at the beginning of January, the median one-bedroom rent in Boston actually dropped 5.9 percent since the start of 2016 – the first time that's happened in these parts in quite some time.
The report was compiled by real estate listings site Zumper, which has now put together some more information about the rent trends it's seeing in Boston, complete with a handy heat map showing what neighborhoods have seen rents rise and which have seen things go the other way.
First, a few highlights from Zumper's Crystal Chen:
- Mission Hill (+12%) and Columbus Park - Andrew Square (+11%) had the fastest growing rents this year and were the only neighborhoods with double digit rent growth.
- Meanwhile, Area IV (-12%), Beacon Hill (-10%), and Chinatown - Leather District (-10%) saw the biggest rent declines in 2016.
Area IV, I've learned, is the Cambridge neighborhood roughly wedged between Central Square, Inman Square and MIT – a pretty prime location geographically speaking. And as for Beacon Hill, I can only assume people just aren't willing to pay for the relative lack of space if affords anymore?
Boston is still the third most expensive rental market in the country, Zumper estimates. And yet the map, which covers 39 neighborhoods, shows a surprising amount of areas that have seen rents go down over the past year. (Sorry, Harvard and Winter Hill, your rent is still surging.)
"In 2016," said Chen, "there seems to have been a migration away from the central, pricier areas to the outer, less expensive neighborhoods."
You be the judge.
Image provided.
