2023 Newton Apartment Rental Market Report

Newton’s apartment rental market is currently seeing historically low apartment availability for the second year in a row.  The current real-time availability rate (RTAR) for Newton apartments has failed to climb above 2.5% for the second year in a row.  As a result, Newton’s average rent price reached an all-time high in March of this year.  Here are the main trends influencing Newton’s apartment rental market in 2023.

Newton’s Apartment Supply Extremely Tight

The current RTAR in Newton, MA is 1.20%.  Apartment availability reached an all-time low in Newton, MA during September of last year when it bottomed out at 0.64%.  Based on the current rate of supply absorption, Newton will come very close to breaking that all-time low again this September.

Newton’s real-time vacancy rate is currently 0.36%, up 71.43% from early August 2022.  Despite the year-over-year increase, due to the RTVR remaining below 1% it is not a significant change. Apartment vacancies remain extremely low.  Newton’s RTVR has remained below the 1% mark since March 2022, the longest sustained period under 1% on record.  Based on current conditions, it does not appear that RTVR will spike on September 1 as it has done in years past.

Based on the most recent apartment data for Newton, MA, it appears like demand for Newton apartments is growing.  Median days on market for Newton apartments is down to 19 days from 37 a year ago, a sizable -48.65% decrease year-over-year.  Like in the rest of Greater Boston, apartment supply is extremely low in Newton and apartment prices have been on the rise this year.

Newton Average Rent Price Hits Record-High In March

Newton’s average rent price is currently $2,733.  That marks a +1.83% increase in Newton’s average rent price year-over-year, and a -4.94% decrease since mid-March when Newton recorded its highest rent price on record ($2,875).  Despite the rising rents, Newton remains a more affordable place to rent an apartment compared to the city, where Boston apartments fetch an average rent of $3,062.

2023 Newton Apartment Rental Market Forecast

Based on the current rate of supply absorption, Newton will come very close to setting a new all-time low in RTAR in September.  RTAR took a rapid downturn in Newton during August of last year.  If that trend repeats itself this year, it’s likely that Newton’s RTAR will bottom out below the 0.65% record set in 2022.  It’s unlikely that the vacancy rate will drop below the 0.11% record low set in late August of last year.

Still, despite the historically low supply of apartments, rent prices have been trending downwards since March.  It’s hard to envision this trend continuing based on the current apartment shortage.  Prices will likely trend back upwards as we near 2024 which is when seasonal demand typically returns.

The only long-term remedy for rising rent prices is an injection of new housing supply.  This is the single biggest obstacle facing the Greater Boston rental market and is one that must be addressed in places like Newton, MA where the amount of developable land is greater than in other densely populated neighborhoods.  We will continue to monitor and report on these trends as they develop.