Being an iconic neighborhood of Boston that boasts a large population, South Boston has always been one of Boston’s top performing rental markets. Though South Boston was not totally unaffected by the disruptions in the rental market owing to the COVID-19 situation, Southie has emerged from the pandemic even stronger than it was before. Compared to December 2019, availability for South Boston apartments has dropped by -47.97% while vacancies are down -57.35%.
YOY Rental Supply Figures in South Boston
Comparing the current supply numbers to December of 2020, we can see that South Boston has recovered quite well from the apartment supply glut of last year. We’ve recorded a YOY decline of -76.52% in the real-time availability rate (RTAR ) and a drop of -76.03% in the real-time vacancy rate (RTVR). This indicates that the demand for apartments in Southie has increased steadily when compared to last December. The RTAR and RTVR of apartments in South Boston are 0.77% and 0.58% respectively.
2021 Average Rent Prices in South Boston
If we do a breakdown of the increase AND decrease in the average rent price of different apartment sizes in South Boston, then we see a mixed bag of outcomes. The average rent price of studio apartments in Southie has taken a drastic dive of -18.49%, which doesn’t look good. Compared to this, the drop in the average rent price of 4 bedroom South Boston apartments, at -1.26%, is quite marginal. Now, let’s have a look at the brighter side of our rental market analysis of South Boston.
The average rent price of 1 bedroom apartments is up by +5.74%. There has also been a decent increase in the average rent price of 2 bedroom (+3.02%) and 3 bedroom (+2.19%) apartments. Similarly the North End, which is quite close to South Boston, has witnessed a rise in the average rent price of all apartment sizes including studio (+9.05%), 1 bedroom (+4.44%), 2 bedroom (+3.71%), 3 bedroom (+2.06%) and 4 bedroom (+4.52%) bedroom apartments.
When compared to the city-wide average, rent prices are much higher in South Boston. The average rent price for Boston apartments ($2,594) is $323 less than the average rent price in South Boston ($2,917). With apartment supply numbers as low as they’ve ever been, don’t look for any relief from soaring rent prices in South Boston in 2022. Prices will likely climb even higher as apartment availability remains tight.
