Newton MA Apartment Rental Market Has Been Slow To Recover

Newton’s apartment rental market has gone through a turbulent year thanks to market forces related to COVID.  Average rent price dropped in many of Boston’s neighborhoods, but few worse than rental prices in Newton MA. The average rent price of Newton apartments is $2,496,recording a year-over-year drop of -6.07%. Apartment prices in Newton are similar to that of the city of Boston, where the average rent  price currently sits at $2,511.

The real time availability rate for apartments in Newton is 2.24% after a YOY decline of -27.04%. This is the third-highest drop in availability rate behind only Framingham and Everett where the YOY drop in availability rate was-100% and -37.06% respectively. The availability rates are not any better in other neighborhoods, and range between 0% and 3.96%. The trends in Newton vacancy rates do not show any considerable difference. They have dropped by -34.21% in the past year, falling to 1.75%. This is just slightly lower than the real time vacancy rate in all of Boston. The vacancy rate in the city of Boston is 1.99% whereas the real time availability rate is 2.39%.

If you are looking to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Newton, you should expect an average price of $1,920. The rates of these one-bedroom apartments in Newton have noted a YOY decrease by -17.6%. In contrast, studio apartments in Newton cost $1,633 on average after experiencing a hike in the year-over-year price by +4.41%. A two-bedroom apartment in Newton averages $2,198, which has also decreased by -9.14% compared to September 2020. On the other hand, a three-bedroom Newton apartment costs $3,123 on average, and has increased+8.51% YOY. This is one of the highest YOY increases recorded for 3 bedrooms alongside Salem, Belmont, Melrose and Winthrop. The year-over-year change in the rates of three bedroom apartments located in these areas are +11.07%, +24.16%, +14.50%, and +15.22% respectively.

Average rent prices for four or five bedrooms in Newton are $3,607 and $4,113 respectively. These rates have dropped YOY by -13.65% and -12.07%. The fall is steep when compared to the year-over-year rate change of four and five-bedroom apartments in Boston, where the price has fallen by just -0.83% for four-bedroom apartments and have increased by +3.29% for five-bedroom apartments.