A metropolitan effective-rent measure
In its February 2020 archive, Boston City Properties discussed January rental figures attributed to REIS, Inc. Boston ranked fourth among 79 major metropolitan regions in that measure, with an average effective monthly rent of $2,349. Effective rent accounts for landlord concessions; it is not necessarily the advertised asking rent for an individual apartment.
The report listed New York at $3,599, San Francisco at $3,153 and San Jose at $2,630, compared with a national figure of $1,426. These are historical market-series figures, not prices a renter can expect to pay now.
Different series answer different questions
The article also discussed a separate bedroom-based series, reporting January 2020 medians of $2,590 for one-bedroom homes and $2,930 for two-bedroom homes. Those medians should not be substituted for the REIS metropolitan average; bedroom mix, coverage and treatment of concessions can change the comparison.
The original account’s relative-percentage descriptions did not consistently match the listed dollar figures. The dollar figures and their period are retained here without repeating those ratios. For the historical story, the important point was the pressure that several different rental measures indicated at the start of 2020, not a permanent national ranking.
Historical attribution: Original Boston City Properties article, February 2020. Reported claims and attributed assessments have not been independently refreshed.
