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The Cheapest, Priciest Areas to Rent a Hub Apartment

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Once the snow melts and the days grow longer, it will be time for thousands of long-timers and newcomers alike to steel themselves for an apartment hunt in the Hub. Supply remains perennially insufficient—never mind the apartment-building boom—and the area seems to absorb wide-eyed arrivistes despite the most alarmist of warnings (sounded here just as loudly as anywhere). So, it comes to this: What are the cheapest and priciest areas in the Hub to rent an apartment?

Our pals at Zillow have culled, by neighborhood, the Hub's estimated median monthly apartment rents for both leased apartments and those up for grabs. The numbers come from the end of the fourth quarter in late December, meaning these reflect rents as they were when January started.

We begin with the 10 priciest, including the changes in the median rents since the end of 2011:
10. West End $2,560 +9.7 percent
9. Cambridgeport $2,626 +13
8. East Cambridge $2,628 +6.2
7. Charlestown $2,641 +7.7
6. Aggasiz $2,646 +16.8
5. North End $2,730 +6.4
4. West Cambridge $2,851 +11
3. Beacon Hill $2,886 +7
2. South End $2,900 +8.3
1. Downtown Boston $3,019 +5.6

And, now, the 10 cheapest (cheapest being a relative term, given the across-the-board yearly increases):
10. Jamaica Plain $2,344 +16.5 percent
9. Mission Hill $2,327 +14.2
8. West Roxbury $2,262 +11.7
7. Kenmore $2,172 +5.3
6. Roslindale $2,133 +10.9
5. Allston $2,089 +12.4
4. Hyde Park $2,058 +8.3
3. North Dorchester $1,984 +10.3
2. Brighton $1,875 +6
1. East Boston $1,841 +8.9
· Our Latest Rental Heatmap: the Hub's New Apartment Buildings [Curbed Boston]
· Why the Hub Housing Market Could Get Worse, Much Worse [Curbed Boston]
· Our Rent Check archive [Curbed Boston]

[photo by Joshua Drew Vaughn]