Looking back over the last two years, few Boston neighborhoods saw as much supply upheaval as did the North End. As apartment availability hit unprecedented levels all over the city in March 2021, only 4 Boston neighborhoods recorded a higher real-time availability rate (RTAR) during that time: Fenway, Allston, Mission Hill and Downtown.
What happened next must qualify as one of the fastest and most drastic market corrections in history. North End’s RTAR hit a new all-time low by October of last year, and now the area is experiencing historically low apartment availability. As a result, average rent prices in the North End have recently surpassed previous all-time highs set before the pandemic.
Record Supply Absorption in North End Boston
In March of 2021, the RTAR of North End apartments skyrocketed to an all-time high of 17.32%. By October of 2021, just 6 months later, North End’s RTAR plummeted to a new all-time low of 2.00%. Now, the RTAR in the North End is 3.49%. The current RTAR is 40.64% below its pre-pandemic level of 5.88% in May 2019, indicating that renters are seeing a significant decrease in available apartments in the North End coming out of the pandemic.