Boston is now America's second most expensive city for renters (2024)

Move over San Francisco — Boston is now the second most expensive city for a one-bedroom rental, behind only New York City, according to Zumper's latest national rent report.

The median price for a one-bedroom rental in Boston jumped by nearly 6% in October to $3,060 per month. That puts it just ahead of San Francisco's median rent price of $3,020.

One reason Boston is experiencing a spike in rental prices: there just aren't many homes available, Zumper reports.

The city's ongoing housing shortage is difficult to overcome due to zoning laws that favor single-family homes, according to the report. On top of that, new rentals that do become available skew toward the luxury market, pushing median rent prices even higher.

Here are the 10 most expensive cities to rent a 1-bedroom.

Zumper's report analyzed data from over 1 million active listings to calculate the median rent price for the 100 largest cities by population. The data includes new construction and excludes listings that are currently occupied or otherwise no longer available.

One thing to note about Boston's surge in rental prices is that the city is subject to seasonal rental patterns due to the numerous colleges located there: "We can expect prices to soften a bit now that students have settled into their new homes, and we enter what is traditionally the low season for renting across the country," Zumper says.

In fact, several U.S. cities that had seen significant price increases are now slowing down

Cincinnati had a 6.82% price decline in September — the largest of all cities that month — but it's also seen rents rise by roughly 16.5% since last September my colleauge and fellow CNBC Make It reporter Mike Winters writes.

In San Jose, California, the median price for a one-bedroom rental is down about 6% compared with September. And even though New York City still ranks as the most expensive city to rent a one-bedroom, median rent prices have fallen about 2% compared with September.

"In many metro areas, declining prices are actually a correction to prices that'd become overly inflated," says Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades. "Now — with a turbulent, unpredictable economy causing fear of recession — migrations are slowing, occupancy rates are falling and rent prices are following suit."

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Boston is now America's second most expensive city for renters (2024)
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