By Prashant Gopal and Greg Ryan
(Bloomberg) -- Boston real estate agent Jax Crerar is
telling landlords to cut rents — fast.
It’s a heel turn for a city that has for years seen
cutthroat competition among renters, thanks to its robust
biotechnology industry and a dense network of elite
universities. But now, deep cuts to research funding, a cooling
biotech market and the loss of residents to other states are
crimping tenant demand.
Apartments in even the most desirable neighborhoods are
sitting empty.
One of Crerar’s clients has a three-bedroom unit near the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology that’s still vacant after
160 days. The unit — previously shared by three graduate
students — charged about $4,200 a month, but is now asking
$3,550, and nobody’s biting.
“They are willing to do anything to get people through the
doors,” Crerar said. “Some landlords who don’t want pets are
maybe willing to take a pet now. And more landlords who didn’t
accept undergrads are taking them because they just want their
places filled.”
The dynamic is familiar to boom towns like Austin and other
warm-weather markets that have seen a surge in new construction
in recent years. What sets Boston apart is the source of the
price pressure: Economic jitters, not an oversupply of new
developments, are driving rents lower.
Massachusetts was one of only two states with negative
employment growth for the 12 months ended August. The biotech
industry that has long been the state’s powerhouse is now
lumbering under the weight of higher rates and a comedown from
the Covid-era investment frenzy. President Donald Trump’s
policies — including reduced federal research funding and
limitations on H-1B visas — aren’t helping, either.
The average asking rent in Boston dipped to $3,043 in
October, its first downward move since 2021, according to data
from RealPage that factors in landlord concessions. Vacancies
are the highest they’ve been since the pandemic, CoStar data
show.
“It’s affordability and job insecurity,” said Greg Willett,
chief economist at LeaseLock. “If there are economic stresses,
it shows up first in the rental market.”
Immigration raids and student visa restrictions are also
taking a toll. New international student enrollment is down 17%
nationally this fall, with Boston University and Northeastern
University, two of the area’s largest schools, seeing declines
in foreign students.
That’s especially concerning for landlords who depend on
the relatively affluent overseas arrivals to fill pricier units.
The vacancy rate in Allston, the student-heavy neighborhood home
to BU, is triple the levels seen closer to downtown, according
to Colliers.
To be sure, the region has seen an uptick in supply, even
if it’s nowhere near the boom elsewhere in the US. The Boston
metro area added 8,600 units in the past year, about 20% higher
than its 10-year average, RealPage Chief Economist Carl Whitaker
said.
That’s giving tenants leverage for the first time in years,
a welcome relief in a place where a quarter of renters are
spending more than half their salaries on housing.
Alyssa Hance moved in this month to a one-bedroom apartment
in a luxury building adjacent to a subway station in Medford. It
had a gym, yoga space and postal lockers, and parking was
included. The building’s sales team offered one month of free
rent, and at $3,000 per month, she could afford it.
After finishing graduate school at BU two years ago, Hance
made an attempt to strike out on her own, only to find herself
back with her two roommates because there was nothing appealing
in her price range.
“Now I feel super empowered — I was self-conscious living
with roommates with my 30th year coming up,” Hance said. “I feel
so much more fancy and grown up.”
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Leasing in Boston is typically slow this time of year
because most college students lock in contracts by Sept. 1.
While landlords usually cut pricing on vacant units after the
summer rush, this year they’re going for 10% to 15% less in some
neighborhoods, rather than the usual 5% to 7%, according to Todd
Mikelonis, president of property management at Boston-based
Charlesgate.
Concessions at larger apartment buildings are especially
generous this year, according to agents. At Luka on the Common,
a high rise in the heart of the theater district, new tenants
get one month free and a $500 gift card. And The Indie, a 149-
unit Allston building which opened in 2024 with an arcade and
skydeck, is giving away three months free for those who sign 17-
month leases.
Matt Knauer said he “prepared for the worst for Boston
rent” when searching for housing near Tufts University, where
he’s starting graduate school in January. Rather than the $5,000
a month he braced for, Knauer found plenty of pet-friendly
apartments for under $4,000, including some for close to what
he’s paying now in Baltimore, he said.
And the dynamic has spread beyond Boston’s urban core. A
typically steady four-bedroom rental in Belmont, the tony suburb
10 miles from downtown, has been sitting on the market for more
than 90 days, agent Sage Jankowitz said. The owner cut rent to
$3,500 from $4,200 and put laundry machines in the unit, but few
applications are coming in, he said.
“There are a lot of people that are more price-sensitive,”
Jankowitz said. “Everyone’s feeling really tight with all of the
craziness with Trump. There’s uncertainty and unease.”
Landlords and agents are hoping leasing activity picks up
next year. One nearly 300-unit waterfront development in Revere,
a city just outside of Boston, is about 70% leased more than a
year after opening, said Damian Szary, an executive at project
developer Redgate. A building that size normally takes a year or
less to fill, but demand dropped off significantly starting in
August, he said.
“Everyone’s anxiously waiting to see what happens in the
spring,” Szary said.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Prashant Gopal in Boston at
[email protected];
Greg Ryan in Boston at
[email protected]To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Claire Ballentine at
[email protected]Jeremy Hill
