Boston Rents On The Rise

"Rents are rising around Boston for the first time in five years.

Surging mortgage rates, high home prices, and a belief that prices may tumble are driving more people to give up on or postpone buying a home and to rent instead.

Buying property 'is less attractive than it was a year ago,' said Tom Meagher, president of Northeast Apartment Advisors Inc., an Acton research and consulting firm. In a housing boom, he said, people 'make sure they don't miss the train when rising prices might freeze them out of the market. It works in reverse if prices are in decline. People don't want to be a homeowner.'

The average monthly rent in Greater Boston climbed to $1,355 this spring, up 3.6 percent from a year earlier, according to a survey by Northeast Apartment conducted over four weeks during late March and early April. The survey stretched as far west as Worcester, and from New Hampshire to Rhode Island. The rental rate is now the highest it's been since 2001 and halts four years of declines. The national market also peaked in 2001 but has started to rise again recently, too."