Boston apartment operators have cut rental rates at a much steeper pace that the U.S. overall during the COVID-19 pandemic. At 8%, annual effective asking rent cuts in Boston were some of the steepest in the nation as of November. Rent cuts here have gotten progressively worse every month since price declines started in May. In the U.S. overall, annual rent decreases have improved in the past two months and were at a more reserved 1.1% in November. In the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Boston was registering rent growth around the 3% mark, about in line with the U.S. average. In fact, in 2019, Boston price positioning pulled slightly ahead of the national norm, where it stayed for much of the year and the first few months of 2020, before the market started to show signs of strain in April.
