RentSmart Boston compiles data from BOS:311 and the City's Inspectional Services Division to give prospective tenants a more complete picture of the homes and apartments they are considering renting, assisting them in understanding any previous issues with the property, including: housing violations, building violations, enforcement violations, housing complaints, sanitation requests, and/or civic maintenance requests.

You can look up individual properties using the RentSmart dashboard here.

The median rent for one- and two-bedroom apartments in Boston, Massachusetts, amounted to about 2,302 U.S. dollars by the end of 2023. Rents decreased slightly after the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic,this trend reversed in 2021 and as of December 2023, the annual rental growth stood at 3.32 percent. Among the different states in the U.S., Massachusetts ranks as one of the most expensive rental markets.

Graph and download economic data for Housing Inventory: Median Days on Market Month-Over-Month in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (CBSA) (MEDDAYONMARMM14460) from Jul 2017 to Feb 2025 about Boston, NH, MA, median, and USA.

The Back Bay district was the most expensive real estate market for office space in Boston in the third quarter of 2024. On average, the average asking rent was about 69 U.S. dollars per square foot of office space. Downtown Boston, the market with the largest inventory of office space among Boston districts, had the second highest rent, at about 68 U.S. dollars. The gross rental rate usually includes costs for utilities and other general maintenance expenses.

Direct link: Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset

DATASET CONTEXT

Boston's ordinance on short-term rentals is designed to incorporate the growth of the home-share industry into the City's work to create affordable housing for all residents. We want to preserve housing for residents while allowing Bostonians to benefit from this new industry. Starting on on January 1, 2019, short-term rentals in Boston will need to register with the City of Boston.

Eligibility for every unit in the City of Boston is dependant on the following six criteria:

• No affordability covenant restrictions
• Compliance with housing laws and codes
• No violations of laws regarding short-term rental use
• Owner occupied
• Two- or three-family dwelling
• Residential use classification

The Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset leverages information, wherever possible, about these criteria. For additional details and information about these criteria, please visit https://www.boston.gov/short-term-rentals.

ABOUT THIS DATASET

ATTENTION: The Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset is now available for residents and landlords to determine their registration eligibility.

NOTE: These data are refreshed on a nightly basis.

In June 2018, a citywide ordinance established new guidelines and regulations for short-term rentals in Boston. Registration opened January 1, 2019. The Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset was created to help residents, landlords, and City officials determine whether a property is eligible to be registered as a short-term rental.

The Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset currently joins data from the following datasets:

• Live Street Address Management (SAM) Addresses
• Assessing Online
• Code Enforcement - Building and Property
• Problem Properties
• Income-Restricted Properties
• STR Registration Data

HOW TO DETERMINE ELIGIBILITY FOR SHORT-TERM RENTAL REGISTRATION

1. ** Open** the Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset. In the dataset's search bar, enter the address of the property you are seeking to register.

2. Find the row containing the correct address and unit of the property you are seeking. This is the information we have for your unit.

3. Look at the columns marked as “Home-Share Eligible,” “Limited-Share Eligible,” and “Owner-Adjacent Eligible.”

   A “yes” under any of these columns means your unit IS eligible for registration under that short-term rental type. Click here for a description of short-term rental types.

   A “no” under any of these columns means your unit is NOT eligible for registration under that short-term rental type. Click here for a description of short-term rental types.

4. If your unit has a “yes” under “Home-Share Eligible,” “Limited-Share Eligible,” or “Owner-Adjacent Eligible,” you can register your unit here.

WHY IS MY UNIT LISTED AS “NOT ELIGIBLE”?

If you find that your unit is listed as NOT eligible, and you would like to understand more about why, you can use the Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset to learn more. The following columns measure each of the six eligibility criteria in the following ways:

1. No affordability covenant restrictions

   • A “yes” in the “Income Restricted” column tells you that the unit is marked as income restricted and is NOT eligible.

The “Income Restricted” column measures whether the unit is subject to an affordability covenant, as reported by the Department of Neighborhood Development and/or the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
For questions about affordability covenants, contact the Department of Neighborhood Development.

1. Compliance with housing laws and codes

   • A “yes” in the “Problem Properties” column tells you that this unit is considered a “Problem Property” by the Problem Properties Task Force and is NOT eligible.

Learn more about how “Problem Properties” are defined here.

* A **“yes”** in the **“Problem Property Owner”** column tells you that the owner of this unit also owns a “Problem Property,” as reported by the Problem Properties Task Force. 

Owners with any properties designated as a Problem Property are NOT eligible.

No unit owned by the owner of a “Problem Property” may register a short-term rental.
Learn more about how “Problem Properties” are defined here.

* The **“Open Violation Count”** column tells you how many open violations the unit has. Units with **any open** violations are NOT eligible. Violations counted include: violations of the sanitary, building, zoning, and fire code; stop work orders; and abatement orders. 

NOTE: Violations written before 1/1/19 that are still open will make a unit NOT eligible until these violations are resolved.
If your unit has an open violation, visit these links to appeal your violation(s) or pay your code violation fine(s).

* The **“Violations in the Last 6 Months”** column tells you how many violations the unit has received in the last six months. Units with **three or more** violations, whether open or closed, are NOT eligible. 

NOTE: Only violations written on or after 1/1/19 will count against this criteria.
If your unit has an open violation, visit these links to appeal your violation(s) or pay your code violation fine(s).

How to comply with housing laws and codes:
Have an open violation? Visit these links to appeal your violation(s) or pay your code violation fine(s).
Have questions about problem properties? Visit Neighborhood Service’s Problem Properties site.
a legal restriction that prohibits the use of the unit as a Short-Term Rental under condominium bylaws.
Units with legal restrictions found upon investigation are NOT eligible.

If the investigation of a complaint against the unit yields restrictions of the nature detailed above, we will mark the unit with a “yes” in this column. Until such complaint-based investigations begin, all units are marked with “no.”
NOTE: Currently no units have a “legally restricted” designation.
Limited-Share
If you are the owner-occupant of a unit and you have not filed for Residential Tax Exemption, you can still register your unit by proving owner-occupancy. It is recommended that you submit proof of residency in your short-term rental registration application to expedite the process of proving owner-occupancy (see “Primary Residence Evidence” section).

* **“Building Owner-Occupied”** measures whether the building has a single owner AND is owner occupied. A “no” in this column indicates that the unit is NOT eligible for an owner-adjacent short-term rental. 

If you believe your building occupancy data is incorrect, please contact the Assessing Department.

1. Two- or three-family dwelling

   • The “Units in Building” column tells you how many units are in the building. Owner-Adjacent units are only allowed in two- to three-family buildings; therefore, four or more units in this column will mark the unit as NOT eligible for an Owner-Adjacent Short-Term Rental.

   • A “no” in the “Building Single Owner” column tells you that the owner of this unit does not own the entire building and is NOT eligible for an Owner-Adjacent Short-Term Rental.

   If you believe your building occupancy data is incorrect, please contact the Assessing Department.
   R4

   If you believe your building occupancy data is incorrect, please contact the Assessing Department.

Visit this site for more information on unit eligibility criteria.

The S&P Case Shiller Boston Home Price Index has risen steadily since February 2020. The index measures changes in the prices of existing single-family homes. The index value was equal to 100 as of January 2000, so if the index value is equal to 130 in a given month, for example, it means that the house prices have increased by 30 percent since 2000. The value of the S&P Case Shiller Boston Home Price Index amounted to nearly 335.36 in August 2024. That was above the national average.

Click here to check Short-Term Rental Eligibility

Boston's ordinance on short-term rentals is designed to incorporate the growth of the home-share industry into the City's work to create affordable housing for all residents. We want to preserve housing for residents while allowing Bostonians to benefit from this new industry. Starting on on January 1, 2019, short-term rentals in Boston will need to register with the City of Boston.

Eligibility for every unit in the City of Boston is dependant on the following six criteria:

• No affordability covenant restrictions
• Compliance with housing laws and codes
• No violations of laws regarding short-term rental use
• Owner occupied
• Two- or three-family dwelling
• Residential use classification

The Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset leverages information, wherever possible, about these criteria. For additional details and information about these criteria, please visit https://www.boston.gov/short-term-rentals.

ABOUT THIS DATASET

In June 2018, a citywide ordinance established new guidelines and regulations for short-term rentals in Boston. Registration opened January 1, 2019. The Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset was created to help residents, landlords, and City officials determine whether a property is eligible to be registered as a short-term rental.

The Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset currently joins data from the following datasets and is refreshed nightly:

• Live Street Address Management (SAM) Addresses.
• Assessing Online.
• Building and Property Violations
• Problem Properties
• Income-Restricted Properties
• STR Registration Data

HOW TO DETERMINE ELIGIBILITY FOR SHORT-TERM RENTAL REGISTRATION

1. ** Open** the Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset. In the dataset's search bar, enter the address of the property you are seeking to register.

2. Find the row containing the correct address and unit of the property you are seeking. This is the information we have for your unit.

3. Look at the columns marked as “Home-Share Eligible,” “Limited-Share Eligible,” and “Owner-Adjacent Eligible.”

   • A “yes” under any of these columns means your unit IS eligible for registration under that short-term rental type. Click here for a description of short-term rental types.
   • A “no” under any of these columns means your unit is NOT eligible for registration under that short-term rental type. Click here for a description of short-term rental types.

4. If your unit has a “yes” under “Home-Share Eligible,” “Limited-Share Eligible,” or “Owner-Adjacent Eligible,” you can register your unit here.

WHY IS MY UNIT LISTED AS “NOT ELIGIBLE”?

If you find that your unit is listed as NOT eligible, and you would like to understand more about why, you can use the Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset to learn more. The following columns measure each of the six eligibility criteria in the following ways:

1. No affordability covenant restrictions

   • A “yes” in the “Income Restricted” column tells you that the unit is marked as income restricted and is NOT eligible.
     
     
   • The “Income Restricted” column measures whether the unit is subject to an affordability covenant, as reported by the Department of Neighborhood Development and/or the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
     
     
   • For questions about affordability covenants, contact the Department of Neighborhood Development.
     
     

2. Compliance with housing laws and codes

   • A “yes” in the “Problem Properties” column tells you that this unit is considered a “Problem Property” by the Problem Properties Task Force and is NOT eligible.
     
     
   • Learn more about how “Problem Properties” are defined here.
     
     
   • A “yes” in the “Problem Property Owner” column tells you that the owner of this unit also owns a “Problem Property,” as reported by the Problem Properties Task Force.
     
     
   • Owners with any properties designated as a Problem Property are NOT eligible.
     
     
   • No unit owned by the owner of a “Problem Property” may register a short-term rental.
     
     
   • Learn more about how “Problem Properties” are defined here.
     
     
   • The “Open Violation Count” column tells you how many open violations the unit has. Units with any open violations are NOT eligible. Violations counted include: violations of the sanitary, building, zoning, and fire code; stop work orders; and abatement orders.
     
     
   • NOTE: Violations written before 1/1/19 that are still open will make a unit NOT eligible until these violations are resolved.
     
     
   • If your unit has an open violation, visit these links to appeal your violation(s) or pay your code violation fine(s).
     
     
   • The “Violations in the Last 6 Months” column tells you how many violations the unit has received in the last six months. Units with three or more violations, whether open or closed, are NOT eligible.
     
     
   • NOTE: Only violations written on or after 1/1/19 will count against this criteria.
     
     
   • If your unit has an open violation, visit these links to appeal your violation(s) or pay your code violation fine(s).
     
     
   • How to comply with housing laws and codes:
     
     
   • Have an open violation? Visit these links to appeal your violation(s) or pay your code violation fine(s).
     
     
   • Have questions about problem properties? Visit Neighborhood Service’s Problem Properties site.
     
     

3. No violations of laws regarding short-term rental use

   • A “yes” in the “Legally Restricted” column tells you that there is a complaint against the unit that finds

     • A legal restriction that prohibits the use of the unit as a Short-Term Rental under local, state, or federal law, OR

     • legal restriction that prohibits the use of the unit as a Short-Term Rental under condominium bylaws.

     • Units with legal restrictions found upon investigation are NOT eligible.
       
       

     • If the investigation of a complaint against the unit yields restrictions of the nature detailed above, we will mark the unit with a “yes” in this column. Until such complaint-based investigations begin, all units are marked with “no.”
       
       

     • NOTE: Currently no units have a “legally restricted” designation.
       
       

4. Owner-occupied

   • A “no” in the “Unit Owner-Occupied” column tells you that there is NO Residential Tax Exemption filed for that unit via the Assessing Department, and that unit is automatically categorized as NOT eligible for the following Short-Term Rental types:

     • Home-Share
     • Limited-Share
       
       
     • Residential Tax Exemption indicates that a unit is owner-occupied and generates a “yes” in the “Unit Owner-Occupied” column.
       
       

     • Owners are not required to file a Residential Tax Exemption in order to be eligible to register a unit as a Short-Term Rental.
       
       

     • If you would like to apply for Residential Tax Exemption, you can apply here.
       
       

     • If you are the owner-occupant of a unit and you have not filed for Residential Tax Exemption, you can still register your unit by proving owner-occupancy.
       

     • It is recommended that you submit proof of residency in your short-term rental registration application to expedite the process of proving owner-occupancy (see

Rental rates in the United States increased steadily since 2008. In 2023, the producer price index for gross rent in office buildings reached 132.9 index points. This means that between 2008 when the index value was set to 100 and 2023, gross office rents grew by about 33 percent. Manhattan, San Francisco, and Boston are among the biggest and most expensive markets for office space in the United States.

Graph and download economic data for Market Hotness: Listing Views per Property in Essex County, MA (LDPEPRMMCOUNTY25009) from Sep 2017 to Feb 2025 about Essex County, MA; Boston; MA; listing; and USA.

The monthly median asking rent for unfurnished apartments in the United States declined by about 74 U.S. dollars between in 2023. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the median rent amounted to 1,751 U.S. dollars, down from 1,825 U.S. dollars in 2022. This decrease followed a decade of steady growth, interrupted only in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. rental market As rental apartment vacancy rates fall, rents are on the rise. This makes it more difficult for Americans to, first, find an apartment to rent, and second, find an apartment which they can afford. Nevertheless, renting has become much more common in recent years, with the number of renter households having substantially increased in the past two decades. In 2023, there were approximately 45 million renter households in the U.S. Rents in different states Of course, rents vary from state to state. The most expensive rents are found in Hawaii, California, District of Colombia, New Jersey, and Florida. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, growth was the strongest in the Sun Belt states, and especially in states with lower costs of living, such as Texas. In Austin, TX, the average rent soared by nearly 26 percent in 2021, and remained elevated, despite a slight decline in 2023.

Graph and download economic data for Housing Inventory: Median Days on Market in Essex County, MA (MEDDAYONMAR25009) from Jul 2016 to Feb 2025 about Essex County, MA; Boston; MA; median; and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Market Hotness: Median Days on Market in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (CBSA) (MEDAONMAMMMSA14460) from Aug 2017 to Feb 2025 about Boston, NH, MA, median, and USA.

San Francisco Bay Rare was the largest research and development (R&D) and life science real estate market in the United States in 2023, with a total inventory of 36.9 million square feet. Greater Boston, Massachusetts, followed with over 36.5 million square feet. The life science REIT Alexandria Real Estate Equities was the largest owner of life science real estate during that year.

This dataset details the various cross-sectional and longitudinal data files of the City of Boston's property assessment data. These data were curated and added to by the Boston Area Research Initiative. The corresponding documentation details information about the various attributes and measures within these data files. Note that Assessments from the year of 2022 are those published in 2023. (2023-11-30)

The Downtown district had the highest office space inventory in Boston, accounting for more than half of the total office real estate stock in 2024. The total floor area of offices in the Downtown district amounted to approximately 36 million square meters. Black Bay and Seaport ranked second and third, respectively, with 14 and 11 million square feet of office space. Boston is one of the largest and most expensive office markets in the country

Seaport was the Boston district with the highest net absorption in the office real estate sector in the first three quarters of 2024. Conversely, Downtown recorded the lowest net absorption, at negative 459,410 square feet. A negative net absorption means that more space was vacated or supplied than absorbed. That is a sign of declining demand for offices. Across the U.S. many of the major markets were impacted by this trend.

Graph and download economic data for Condo Price Sales Pair Counts for Boston, Massachusetts (BOXRCPSNSA) from Jan 1995 to Jan 2025 about Boston, sales, HPI, housing, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

There are many factors that make a city a "science city": human capital, flow of capital investment into health and R&D, openness to business, good lifestyle indicators, and property market. According to the source, London, New York, and Boston are the three leading cities for life sciences worldwide as of 2020. These cities have the highest rental costs per square foot of life science space. In London, a square foot of lab space cost 113 U.S. dollars as of 2020. In 2021, life sciences is one of the sectors with highest investment properties in Europe according to industry experts.

United States Avg Sale to List: Townhouse: Boston, MA data was reported at 100.005 % in Jul 2020. This records an increase from the previous number of 99.761 % for Jun 2020. United States Avg Sale to List: Townhouse: Boston, MA data is updated monthly, averaging 99.150 % from Feb 2012 (Median) to Jul 2020, with 102 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 101.247 % in May 2018 and a record low of 96.171 % in Mar 2012. United States Avg Sale to List: Townhouse: Boston, MA data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Redfin. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.EB050: Average Sales to List: by Metropolitan Areas.

United States Pending Sales: Condo/Co-op: Boston, MA data was reported at 1,313.000 Unit in Jul 2020. This records an increase from the previous number of 1,142.000 Unit for Jun 2020. United States Pending Sales: Condo/Co-op: Boston, MA data is updated monthly, averaging 868.500 Unit from Feb 2012 (Median) to Jul 2020, with 102 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,421.000 Unit in May 2018 and a record low of 208.000 Unit in Feb 2012. United States Pending Sales: Condo/Co-op: Boston, MA data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Redfin. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.EB046: Pending Home Sales: by Metropolitan Areas.