The apartment rental market in Cambridge MA has seen quite a bit of turmoil due to market forces put in motion by the COVID-19 pandemic. Apartment vacancies soared in 2020 when local schools adopted remote learning, severely hampering the student population that accounts for a huge percentage of the Cambridge apartment rental market. Cambridge is at the center of Boston’s student housing area, so it’s no surprise that the vacancy dilemma affected Cambridge to a significant degree.
The trends in the availability rates, vacancy rates and average cost have seen a considerable change in Cambridge as a result of these forces. The real time availability rate in Cambridge is currently 3.11% which is fairly higher than that of the city of Boston (2.39%). The YOY change in real time availability rate (RTAR) for the apartments in Cambridge has risen by +96.84%. If we look at the average rent price for Cambridge apartments, it lies at $2,887 and is slightly higher than that of Boston, which has an average rent price of $2,567.
If you choose to rent a studio apartment in Cambridge, you will be looking at an average rent price of $1,919. Studio apartments have witnessed a YOY % change of -1.49%. This is slightly better when compared with the YOY change for studio apartment prices in Boston. The year-over-year change in the studio apartment prices in the City of Boston dropped by -6% whereas it dropped by -4.36% in all of Metro Boston.
The real time Cambridge vacancy rate has seen a drastic increase year-over-year (+97.69%). At present, the real time vacancy rate of apartments in Cambridge is 2.57%. This is the third highest after Belmont, which has a vacancy rate of 3.08%, and Salem which has a vacancy rate of 2.64%.
The average rent prices of Cambridge apartments largely vary depending upon the location of the apartments and the number of rooms you are looking for. If you are looking to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Cambridge, you can expect an average price of $2,199 after a year-over-year price drop of -7.29%.
Similarly, the average price of a two-bedroom apartment in Cambridge is $2,694 and this price has seen a year-over-year decline of -4.43%. A three-bedroom apartment in Cambridge will cost $3,396 on average, and have fallen -2.16% since September of 2020. While looking at the average price of a four-bedroom apartment in Cambridge, you will see and average rent price of $4,225 after a YOY drop of -8.07%.
The average rent price of Cambridge apartments is $2,763, which is the highest average rent price among all suburbs of Boston. Even the city of Boston has an average rent price of just $2,511, which is almost 25% less than that of Cambridge.