Rent or buy, it’s expensive to live in Boston

According to Forbes.com, the Boston metropolitan area is the fourth most-expensive rental market in the United States, following New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

“Class-A” rental space (not defined, but presumably, downtown Boston) costs an average of $25.08 per square foot of space, (on an annual basis), and “Class-B” rental space costs an average of $17.49 per square foot of space, (on an annual basis).

In the Boston metropolitan area, about 35% of housing is renter-occupied, according to 2004 data from the U.S. Census. [The census data may cover a slightly different geographical area than the Forbes.com apartment price information does.]

Apartment price data includes the Cambridge and Quincy areas, as well as parts of New Hampshire.

Source: Forbes.com

John Keith     August 20, 2006     boston cost of living, boston rental market

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2 Responses to “Rent or buy, it’s expensive to live in Boston”

1. Jeff Takle Says:
   

   Actually, there are several sources of data that say Boston has a MUCH higher rate of rentals than 35%. National average is around 33%, but Boston has about double that.

   According to Multi-Family Housing Council rental rate is 56%.

   Also, the U.S. Census Bureau lists Boston’s homeownership rate at 32.2% in 2000, which converts to a renter-occupied rate (assuming no vacancy) of 67.8%, more than double the national average. This is also consistent with drivnig around the city–frankly, there aren’t that many single family homes sitting around! Also, working as a rental agent in the city, there are thousands of units on the market there, so these two estimates (56%-68%) seem much more consistent with what we see on the street.

   My guess is that you pulled the 35% renter-occupied number from the Massachusetts state-level statistics, which are hugely skewed b/c of the difference between Boston proper and the much more spread out western Mass.

   Other interesting facts:
   - Boston is the 10th largest MSA in terms of # of rental units
   - Mass is 13th largest in the country
   - Mass has 521 residential property management companies
   Thought I’d chime in…

   September 8th, 2006 at 8:03 am
2. Jeff Takle Says:
   

   Oops. Make the MFHC rate “44%”
   One minor suggestion–you may want to build in a “Preview your Reply” capability so that dummies like me could avoid a lot of typos and errors.

   September 8th, 2006 at 8:05 am

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