[Troy Boston under construction last summer via Boston Daily]
Real estate search engine Reis Inc. has a report out on rents in the nation's biggest metropolitan areas and surprise, surprise Greater Boston is right near the top in terms of cost: the region's second-quarter average effective rent of $1,939 per month places it fourth on the list behind San Jose, San Francisco and New York.
Reis Inc. also determined that the region's apartment vacancy rate was 5.2 percent, up from the second quarter of 2014 and above the national average of 4.2 percent. And! It's only going to rise, according to Ryan Severino, the website's senior economist and research director. Why? Because of the new apartment construction. The rising vacancy rate will inevitably drive down asking rents (and, we imagine, boost the number of tenant incentives). "Although new supply remains the only key risk to the apartment market, Armageddon was deferred for at least one more quarter," Severino told the Boston Business Journal's Catherine Carlock. "However, the pipeline remains incredibly robust and the market is only delaying the inevitable." We told you the real estate market hereabouts was cooling.
· Boston Apartment Rents Fourth-Highest Nationwide as 'Armageddon' Looms [Biz Journal]
· 3 Signs Greater Boston's Housing Market Is Actually Cooling [Curbed Boston]
· The Biggest Greater Boston Apartment Openings in 2015 [Curbed Boston]