Boston apartment rents now firmly trailing nation’s most expensive markets

Boston is the fifth-most expensive area in the United States to rent a one-bedroom apartment as of October 1, according to a new analysis of vacant and available units from real estate listings site Zumper.

The city’s median one-bedroom rent stands at $2,200 a month—the same as September and about the same as a year ago.

That figure places Boston behind New York, San Francisco, San Jose/Silicon Valley, and Washington.

As for two-bedrooms, the city finishes sixth overall, with a median at the start of the month of $2,610. That is up slightly from September and from October 2016. L.A. joins the four aforementioned cities in being pricier than Boston for a two-bedroom (see chart at the bottom of this post).

The October figures offer a slim ray of sunshine for prospective tenants. Here’s why: Time was not long ago—one year at the inside—that Boston routinely finished in these Zumper surveys as the nation’s third-most-expensive one-bedroom and two-bedroom market, usually behind San Fran and NYC in both.

Now Boston finishes firmly behind D.C. and the Valley, too, in each apartment size. It’s not much, but it’s something. Right?

• Zumper National Rent Report: October 2017 [Zumper]
• Boston rental market drops to fourth most expensive in the U.S.: report [Curbed Boston]