Kendall Square now tops Boston for neighborhood with most expensive rents
Online rental market tracker Zumper looked at more than 14,000 Boston-area apartment listings to draft its latest report.
Kendall Square beats out downtown Boston, the Back Bay and South Boston as the most expensive Boston-area neighborhood to rent in, a new report finds.
One-bedroom rents in Kendall Square jumped 5.5 percent over the late summer and early fall, to $3,480, while two-bedrooms rose 2.8 percent to $4,110, reports Zumper, an online rental market tracker and marketplace.
Kendall Square rents have shot up 11.2 percent in the past year, nearly four times the rate of the Boston market as a whole, which saw a 3 percent increase.
The Cambridge neighborhood’s rise as a rental hotspot comes as booming biotech and high-tech companies battle it out for lab and office space in Kendall Square, flooding the area with well-paid scientists, researchers and executives.
Zumper analyzes asking rents to come up with its figures, looking at more than 14,000 Boston area apartment listings to draft its latest report.
“When you dig down into the neighborhoods, the Kendall Square area continues to be very strong,’’ said Devin O’Brien, Zumper’s data chief. “It is now the most expensive area, especially around MIT.’’
By contrast, while downtown Boston and South Boston also came in at the top of the most expensive list, there are signs rents may be finally peaking as new luxury rental towers and projects flood the market.
While downtown Boston came in No. 2 on Zumper’s list, one-bedroom rents actually fell 1.3 percent over the past three months to $3,060. Two-bedrooms fell nearly 2 percent, to $4,060.
The D-Street, West Broadway area of South Boston saw one-bedroom rents fall 4.2 percent over the past quarter, to $2,990, while two bedrooms dropped 3.3 percent to just under $3,500.
Bucking the trend was the Back Bay, which now has the highest two-bedroom rent in the Boston area, nearing $4,400 after a 7.1 percent jump. One-bedrooms in the neighborhood were much further down the list, though, edging up just a percent, to $2,680.
If these rents look high to you, even after some downward adjustments, it’s because they are.
The Boston area remains the third most expensive rental market in the country, below just San Francisco and New York, with one-bedrooms weighing in at $2,400 and two-bedrooms at $2,650, Zumper reports.
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