The apartment rental market in Somerville, MA has been very active in 2025 thus far. Somerville’s apartment availability peaked +16.63% higher this year in March than it did in 2024. Since then, the market has rapidly absorbed the available rental inventory and now apartment availability sits -15.67% lower than it did in early July 2024, indicating that apartment demand is very strong in what is one of Boston’s premier suburban rental markets. Here are the trends driving the apartment rental market in Somerville, MA.
Somerville Apartment Supply Figures
The current real-time availability rate (RTAR) for Somerville apartments is 1.83%. That figure is down -15.67% year-over-year and +21.19% over a two-year span. Somerville’s RTAR peaked at 4.84% in early March, which is the highest seasonal apex recorded in the last 3 years. However, that availability inventory was rented out quickly since March and we’re now looking at lower supply compared to last summer.
Somerville’s real-time vacancy rate (RTVR) is currently 0.38%. That figure is down -2.56% year-over-year and up +123.53% compared to two years ago. Vacancies in Somerville have remained incredibly low in Somerville since the pandemic recovery. Last September, Somerville’s RTVR peaked to 1.23% briefly before trending back downwards, which marked the only time where Somerville’s vacancy rate has been above 1% since late 2021.
According to our real-time Somerville rental data, the median days on market for an apartment is 14 days. That figure is down from 17 days from when we released our 2024 Somerville Apartment Rental Market Report last September. Somerville’s median days on market is less than half of Boston’s (31 days) and are a good representation of how strong demand is in Somerville.
Somerville Average Rent Prices
The average rent price for an apartment in Somerville is currently $3,646. That figure is up +1.62% compared to last July and +7.36% compared to July 2023. Somerville’s average rent price is now +10.65% higher than the average rent price for Boston apartments ($3,295), making it the third most expensive suburb to rent an apartment behind Cambridge and Brookline.
Rent prices for 2 bedroom and 5 bedroom apartments in Somerville rose the most over the last 12 months (+4.90% and +7.72% respectively). Prices for studios and 4 bedroom apartments in Somerville jumped by +3.84% and 1.99% respectively, while prices for 1 bedrooms and 3 bedrooms increased by smaller margins (+0.64% and +0.83% respectively).
2025 Somerville Apartment Rental Market Forecast
Based on our data, it appears like we may be headed for a worsening apartment shortage in Somerville as we enter the second half of 2025. Somerville’s RTAR has retracted rapidly since March’s peak and is showing little evidence of slowing down so far. Considering Somerville is also affected by the Tufts leasing rush which typically occurs in Q4, we also must prepare for RTAR to continue to drop well after September. We will have a separate Tufts Rental Market Report written that will cover this trend in more detail.
But considering that Somerville’s current RTAR is already lower than it was on September 1 of last year and dropping rapidly, it may be slim pickings for Tufts students once they enter the market in September/October. For that reason, we predict rent prices will begin to accelerate upwards through the latter half of 2025. Look for Somerville’s average rent price growth to fall somewhere in the 3-5% range by the end of the year. We will continue to monitor these trends as they develop here on bostonpads.com.
Demetrios Salpoglou
Published July 2, 2025
Demetrios has pulled together the largest apartment leasing team in the Greater Boston Area and is responsible for procuring more apartment rentals than anyone in New England – with over 130k people finding their housing through his services. Demetrios is an avid real estate developer, peak performance trainer, educator, guest lecturer and motivational speaker.
