The Boston area is the nation’s fourth most expensive apartment market as of May 1, a distinction it held at the start of April, too, according to listings site Zumper.
Its monthly reports cull available and vacant apartments to find median 1- and 2-BR apartment rents. So it is a sold measure of where the market is right now.
And where is that? Boston is snugly behind San Francisco, New York, and San Jose among the nation’s most expensive areas for renting a 1-BR. The region’s 1-BR median is $2,200 as of May 1—the same as it was as of April 1, in fact.
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What’s more, the median 2-BR rent in Boston is $2,600 as of May 1—again, what it was four weeks earlier.
Both sums have declined slightly since May 2016: 3.5 percent for 1-BRs and 2.6 percent for 2-BRs.
So there is good news and bad news in the Zumper report. Good news? Slightly less expensive on a median basis. Bad news? Still expensive, even among the priciest apartment markets in the U.S.