Boston Rental Market: Tough on Renters

For those of you that are looking to rent an apartment in the 12 months hopefully you’ve read this article on boston.com or read it in the paper. The article goes on to describe a story that any broker who’s worked in the Boston rental market can tell you.

First, if you think you’re going to get a steal on a place because you’ve heard in the news rents are going down keep dreaming. The article in the paper wisely points out that a minimum you’ll pay for a unit in downtown is $1400. Is this a hard and fast rule, no are there places less than $1400 sure, but they are few and far between and they are smaller than some single dorm rooms. Despite some vacancies landlords are holding out for their price and not willing to compromise. In one case I heard a landlord tell someone about their offer “I’d rather use the unit for storage!”

Second, if you have a pet especially a dog or are a family with small children who need a lead-free apartment it’s a very small market. Rental brokers have been telling people for years that if you have a dog it’s a very small market, very few owners and buildings for that matter take dogs. Unfortunately there are double standards in some buildings which can confuse people even further. At the Ritz and One Charles, owners are allowed to have dogs but anyone renting one of the condos cannot. Renters with small children often find themselves in similar situations due to the fact that the buildings in Boston are so old and so few people have renovated to the standards necessary. This leaves this group with few options depending on what they are looking for and not something they are always pleased with.

Finally, yes the sad fact is that due to previous market conditions most private landlords don’t want to pay the broker’s fee, for the tenant. The market had previously been that people we’re willing to pay to get into that place they saw and loved, but that’s no longer the case. The apartments have gotten older in many cases and more are sitting empty; but few landlords are willing to break the psychological barrier of paying the brokers fee. This surely hurts some landlords as their properties sit vacant for months at a time and others are just dealing with it. There is no right or wrong decision on this one it’s all about what the market will decide and it’s something that both sides should be aware of.

Is the Bachelor Pad Dead?

That’s the question this article from the New York times asked over the weekend. In New York the Bachelor Pad maybe dead but in Boston I’d say it’s just down with the flu. (Not everyone everyone has it, but some people do and it’s not that bad.) I certainly have quite a few clients who updated their bachelor pads this year and some that just stayed put. A couple quit the lifestyle and moved in with their girlfriend, but even then they didn’t sacrifice like those in New York. The Clarendon, one of the most expensive rental buildings in Back Bay is currently out of 1 bed units and my guess is quite a few of those have been rented by single men. Still, I’ll put question out there, Bachelors of Boston are you downsizing this year?