Massachusetts Rent Report – Year End 2019

• The U.S. average rent ended the year with a 3% ($43) increase since last December, but decreased by a slight 0.1% ($1) month-over-month, dipping to $1,474 according to data from Yardi Matrix.
• Billerica, MA renters saw the highest monthly rent increase in December, with the average rate reaching $1,968 per month. 
• Boston apartments are the most expensive, while apartments in Holyoke have the cheapest rents. 

At year-end, the national average rent sees the slowest annual rise in 17 months

Nationally, apartments were renting for $1,474 on average at the end of 2019, after the slowest annual rise in the past 17 months, 3%. Furthermore, rates displayed a slower yearly growth at the end of 2019 than in the previous year, when they went up by 3.2% according to apartment rent data from Yardi Matrix. In net dollars, renters are now paying $43 more per month for an apartment than they did in December 2018. By comparison, in the previous year, they saw a $45 rent hike compared to 2017. The winddown comes after a decade of thriving apartment construction in which over 2.4M units were delivered across the U.S.

The national average rent also saw two consecutive monthly dips, declining by a slight 0.1% in both November and December. As fewer people look for new apartments during the cold season, rents usually slow down or decline, explaining why last month, prices flatlined in 94% of the cities we analyzed and shrunk in another 3%. Only 3% of cities saw apartment rents increase since November.

Renting in Massachusetts in December 2019

The average rent in Massachusetts cities is generally higher than the national average rent. The fastest growing rents in December were in Billerica, where rental apartment prices increased by 1.6% month over month, or $31. Malden apartments saw the second highest monthly increase, jumping by 0.9%, or $20, while in Peabody, prices decreased by 1.3% ($27) compared to November.

Boston apartments are the state’s most expensive for renters, with an average rent of $3,438, followed by apartments in Cambridge, where the average monthly rent is $3,182. On the other hand, the cheapest city to rent an apartment of the cities analyzed is Holyoke, with its average rent of $982, being the only one under $1,000.

To compare the rental market in Massachusetts with other cities in the U.S., you can also check our national year end rent report.

Methodology

RentCafe.com is a nationwide apartment search website that enables renters to easily find apartments and houses for rent throughout the United States.

The data on average rents included in our reports comes directly from competitively-rented (market-rate) large-scale multifamily properties (50+ units in size), via telephone survey. The data is compiled and reported by our sister company Yardi Matrix, a business development and asset management tool for brokers, sponsors, banks and equity sources underwriting investments in the multifamily, office, industrial and self-storage sectors. Fully-affordable properties are not included in the survey and are not reported in rental rate averages. Local rent reports include only cities with a statistically-relevant stock of large-scale multifamily properties of 50+ units.