Boston rents keep rising

By Binyamin Appelbaum April 25, 2008

The cost of an apartment in the Boston area appears to be rising even as home prices continue to fall. The issues may well be connected: Fewer people buying homes leaves more people renting homes. More demand, higher prices.

Rentometer, a Newton company that aggregates listings data, reports the median asking price for a two-bedroom apartment in the Boston area hit $1,650 during the first quarter of 2008, up from $1,600 during the first quarter of 2007.

"Those people that are typically, maybe would be first-time homebuyers, are waiting just a little bit longer," said Allison Atsiknoudas of Rentometer. "The market has shifted from buyers to renters."

The Rentometer site lets users compare their rent with rents for comparable properties.

Another aggregator, Sunrise Management & Consulting, issues more detailed data twice a year. The New York company has yet to release data for the spring of 2008, but the chart at right shows the trend by unit type in recent years.

The local rental market remains among the nation's most expensive. Only Los Angeles, New York, Washington and San Francisco had higher median asking prices for two-bedroom apartments.