Boston Apartment Availability Drops 87% In Six Months In Rapid Recovery
Boston’s apartment availability percentage has been on a wild ride over the past 24 months. In October of 2019, apartment availability was near an all-time low at 1.74% following a decade of growing demand for rental units in Greater Boston. In 2020, it rapidly climbed to its highest level in more than a decade and peaked at 13.43% in March, more than double its cyclical high in March of 2019 (5.56%). Since then, apartment availability has been in a free fall, and is beginning to flatten at 1.97%, very close to its level in October 2019. That marks an 87.04% drop in availability rate in just 7 months for Boston apartments . To state the obvious, the pandemic was the main contributing factor in all of this volatility. But why such a huge swing in both directions? Boston is no stranger to high apartment turnover. Historically, the availability percentage has fluctuated between 2% and 8% every year, with its peak occurring in March/April and its lo...