Charlestown is a historic town neighborhood in Boston, that in fact is the oldest neighborhood in the city. Like pretty much all of the neighborhoods in Boston, the rental market in Charlestown has experienced tough times due to the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this particular article, we are going to be talking mainly about the vacancy rates (RTVR) and availability rates (RTAR) in real-time for Charlestown apartments.
Charlestown YOY Vacancy Rate Change Among The Worst In Boston
The average RTVR in all of Boston was +121.05% while the RTAR was +78.89% in year-over-year change. The City of Boston registered an RTVR of +144.74% and an RTAR of +87.63% while the Boston suburbs had lower metrics of RTVR of +88.74% and an RTAR of +61.32%.
However, the YOY RTVR and RTAR were much higher in the neighborhood of Charlestown, at +223.81% and +363.49%. To put this into contrast, Charlestown has the 3rd largest increase in RTVR and RTAR. In the RTAR metric, only the neighborhoods of Downtown and West End had a larger increase at +724.64% and +803.37%. On the other hand Downtown at a rate of +1232.99% and Allston at +425%, were the only two neighborhoods that experienced a steeper increase in RTVR.
What is interesting is that Downtown has a fairly similar average rent to Charlestown at $2,840 compared to the latter’s $2,786. However, the neighborhoods of West End and Allston have much lower average rents of $2,362 and $2,470. From this, we can gather that Charlestown may have performed better over the past year in the RTAR and RTVR figures in comparison to much cheaper districts. Yet, at the same time neighborhoods such as Beacon Hill at $2,813 had a slightly lower increase year-over-year in both RTAR as well as RTVR.
The high rent prices found in Charlestown have meant that there have been a higher number of vacancies due to the increased difficulty for people to pay their monthly rent. This will most likely be a short-term business climate, and prices, as well as RTVR and RTAR, will recover as Charlestown is a historic inner-city neighborhood that is high in demand.
Here we are going to compare six neighborhoods with similar RTAR and RTVR year-over-year metrics so that you can better understand the performance of the rental market in Charlestown:
1. Charlestown
Average Rent: $2,786
RTAR Change YOY: 223.81%
RTVR Change YOY: 363.49%
2. Beacon Hill
Average Rent: $2,813
RTAR Change YOY: 180.20%
RTVR Change YOY: 290.74%
3. Downtown
Average Rent: $2,840
RTAR Change YOY: 724.64%
RTVR Change YOY: 1232.99%
4. Fenway/Kenmore
Average Rent: $3,048
RTAR Change YOY: 184.35%
RTVR Change YOY: 292.77%
5. Allston
Average Rent: $2,470
RTAR Change YOY: 120.85%
RTVR Change YOY: 425%
6. Allston/Brighton Bay
Average Rent: $2,349
RTAR Change YOY: 111.03%
RTVR Change YOY: 200%
Excess Apartment Inventory Has Led To A Decrease In Charlestown Rent Prices
The average rents compared to the previous year on average dropped by -3.53% in all areas of Boston. This can be broken down further to -3.74% in the Inner Boston areas and a -2.81% decrease outside of Boston. In the Charlestown neighborhood in particular there was a change of -3.72%.
There were major increases in the number of Charlestown apartments, such as a +7.37% increase in the Studio category, a +4.08% change for the 3 Bedroom apartments, and a +4.46% change for the 5 Bedroom apartments. However, all of this was made meaningless due to a massive -27.83% drop in the 4 Bedroom category, there were also decreases in 1 Bedroom at -6.65% and 2 Bedrooms at -3.73% compared to the previous year.