Survey shows what Boston renters do and do not like about their city
A new Apartment List survey shows that Bostonians are actually quite happy with where they live.
Boston may have a high rents and bad traffic, but renters in the Hub seem to love the city.
Apartment List, an apartment rental marketplace, recently released a survey in which Boston was ranked second out of 100 cities for renters’ satisfaction with their chosen city. Boston only fell behind Plano, Texas.
It’s important to note that the survey asked renters how much they appreciate their city in general, and not how happy they were with the actual renting process.
The survey dug into a few other issues confronting renters as well.
According to Apartment List, which surveyed 18,000 renters across 100 different cities in the U.S., 67 percent of Boston renters said they expect to buy a home in the future.
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See how much East Boston has changed throughout the years:
“One other thing that is unique that we don’t see as much in other big cities — Boston has high plans for home ownership which is unusual,’’ Andrew Woo, a data scientist for Apartment List, told Boston.com. “Most renters in San Francisco and New York have lower plans for home ownership.’’
Confidence in the local economy also received a high ranking in Boston, when renters were asked if they believed the economy in the city to be on the right track.
“Boston renters report an extremely high degree of satisfaction with their city. They’re particularly optimistic about the local economy,’’ Andrew Tam, vice president of data science at Apartment List, said in a statement. “The U.S. renter population is at its highest level in 20 years, and Boston’s strong economy appeals to this important demographic.’’
Boston ranked high in other categories, too, such as access to recreational activities, safety and crime rate, and (maybe shockingly) satisfaction with daily commute.
The thing Boston renters like least about their city?
State and local taxes.
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