Boston rents and rental comps

The median asking rent across Boston, MA sits at $3,635/month, pulled from active rental listings in 20 zip codes. That's up 1.6% from a year ago.

Rents aren't uniform across the city. ZIP 02120 tops the list at $4,800/month. ZIP 02131 comes in lowest at $2,900/month. That's a 66% spread between the top and bottom zip codes, which is wide. City-wide averages won't tell you much about a specific property here.

A 2-bedroom rents for $3,838/month at the median. 1-bedrooms run about $3,050. 3-bedrooms come in around $4,875.

Listings take longer here. The average is 45 days on market, which gives renters more room to negotiate and means landlords should price carefully.

Rent-to-price math is tight in Boston. The gross figure sits at about 4.7% ($3,635/month against $929,450 median price). Most investors here are betting on appreciation, not monthly cash flow.

Boston has a structural advantage few other cities can match. A massive concentration of universities (Harvard, MIT, BU, Northeastern, BC) and hospitals (Mass General, Brigham, Dana-Farber) generates constant demand from students, residents, fellows, and professors. Supply is severely limited. Geography constrains the city, and NIMBYism makes new construction slow. Back Bay, South End, and Cambridge are premium. Dorchester, Roxbury, and East Boston are cheaper. The September 1st lease cycle is real in Boston. A huge share of leases turn over on that date, which creates a leasing surge every summer. Understanding that seasonal cycle matters if you're pricing rent here.

These numbers are city-wide averages. If you're pricing a specific property in Boston, pull comps from the same zip code. The spread is usually bigger than people expect.