Boston apartment rents end 2017 slightly up

Boston ended 2017 as the sixth most expensive major U.S. city to rent either a one-bedroom or a two-bedroom apartment, according to real estate research site Zumper.

Its analyses cull from vacant and available units, so they are generally pretty solid snapshots of where the market stands.

And that market stands about where it did at the end of 2016. The median one-bedroom Boston rent was $2,270 a month, up 0.9 percent annually. The median two-bedroom rent was $2,700, up 3.8 percent from the same period 12 months ago.

Both medians were essentially flat, too, from November through December.

More portentously perhaps, for both landlords and tenants, is that Boston is no longer among the top 5 most expensive apartment markets nationwide. It’s now solidly behind San Francisco, New York, San Jose, Washington, and Los Angeles.

Rents in these cities rose much more sharply in some cases—two-bedroom medians in Washington and L.A. bounced by double-digit percentages annually.

That’s something to warm you if you’re a prospective tenant hereabouts.

• Zumper national rent report: January 2018 [Zumper]
• 7 trends and milestones set to rock Boston-area real estate in 2018 [Curbed Boston]