(Alpine Times) — 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.”
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.
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