Apartments for Rent in Boston, MA

Overview of Findings

Apartment List has released Boston’s results from the third annual Apartment List Renter Satisfaction Survey. This survey, which drew on responses from over 45,000 renters, provides insight on what states and cities must do to meet the needs of 111 million American renters nationwide.

"Boston renters expressed general satisfaction with the city overall," according to Apartment List. "However, ratings varied greatly across different categories, indicating that even though renters love Boston, some aspects can be better."

Key findings in Boston include the following:

• Boston renters gave their city an A overall.

• The highest-rated categories for Boston were public transit, social life and recreational activities, which all received A+ grades.

• The areas of concern to Boston renters are affordability and weather, which both received D grades.

• Millennial renters are very satisfied with their city, giving it an overall grade of A-.

• Boston did relatively well compared to other cities in New England, including New York, NY (C+), Philadelphia, PA (C+) and New Haven, CT (D).

• The top rated cities nationwide for renter satisfaction include Scottsdale, AZ, Irvine, CA, Boulder, CO and Ann Arbor, MI. The lowest rated cities include Tallahassee, FL, Stockton, CA, Dayton, OH, Detroit, MI and Newark, NJ.

Renters say:

• "Boston is a city with a sense of community I haven’t seen anywhere else. It takes a while to make friends with the locals because they’re such a tight group, but it’s a great place." – Jonathan M.
• "It’s clean, safe, has great restaurants, and is accessible to all of New England." – Nicole C.
• "Love the culture of the city. It’s very walkable and there’s lots to do. My one dislike is that the city’s too cold!" – Kieran
• "I love the convenience to everything like bars and transportation. But the cost of rent keeps going up without apartments getting upgraded, and there’s a disappointing lack of dog-friendly places." – Shaun K.

For more information on the survey methodology and findings or to speak to one of our researchers, please contact our team at rentonomics@apartmentlist.com.