NYC, Boston most expensive rental cities in US: Report
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Beantown and the Big Apple take the top slots for America’s priciest cities.
According to a new report by the home listing platform Zumper, New York City’s October median of $3,860 monthly rent for a one-bedroom has made it the most expensive rental city in America. Boston, with a median $3,060 a month one-bedroom rent, gets the silver medal.
For its part, Boston has overtaken notoriously expensive San Francisco, which now comes in third with a median $3,020 for a one-bedroom.
Boston’s leapfrogging of Frisco for second place is largely a result of Bostonites having to navigate “especially low supply,” per the report.
The eye-watering numbers come, for the first time in two years, as both one- and two-bedroom apartments have simultaneously seen national price declines. These decreases, though, are only 0.8% and 0.7% respectively, bringing the national median one-bedroom rent to $1,491 and two-bedroom rent to $1,832. Still, they’re part of a larger slowdown that Zumper noted is traceable in its year-over-year figures.
The trend has a number of causes, including rising vacancy rates and recession fears. Indeed, of those surveyed for the report, 76.2% said they believe the US is already in a recession.
Despite this, high interest rates and inflation will likely keep rental prices at competitive rates for the foreseeable future, although a fresh inflow of supply over the next half year will turn the tables slightly in favor of renters.
“In many metro areas, declining prices are actually a correction to prices that’d become overly inflated,” said Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades. “We saw historic levels of migration throughout the pandemic, as people switched to working from home and re-imagined their living situations. Now — with a turbulent, unpredictable economy causing fear of recession — migrations are slowing, occupancy rates are falling and rent prices are following suit.”
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