What Rents Actually Cost in Greater Boston

By Ethan Piani-Hohmann, PH Realty Group  /  Updated 26 August 2026  /  13,055 closed rentals across ten towns

The ten towns, ranked

Sorted by what a two bedroom actually rents for. Every figure comes from rentals closed in the six months ending 26 August 2026, except the trend, which compares the same individual units against their own previous rent over the full two years, the most honest growth measure that exists.

Two bedroom medians and days to rent from the last six months. Cash to move in is the median of first month, plus last month where required, plus the security deposit, on two bedroom rentals over the full period. Click any town for the complete report.

Read the spread: the same two bedroom costs $1,050 a month more in Cambridge than in Waltham, twelve minutes apart. And the up front gap is wider still: $5,900 to sign in Waltham, $9,200 in Brookline. If you're choosing between towns, those two columns are the actual decision.

Ten things this data says that nobody else will tell you

• Overpricing fails identically in every town. A rental priced at or above its eventual rent leases in 15 to 20 days everywhere. One that has to cut takes 42 to 52 days, and gives up $200 to $300 a month anyway. This is the most consistent pattern in 13,055 rentals: the market tells you the price in three weeks, and waiting costs a month of vacancy plus the cut.
• Around seven rentals in ten go at or above the asking price. In Belmont and Brookline it's nearly eight in ten. Renters: a fairly priced unit will not wait for your third viewing.
• New supply moves rents, and I can prove it with one pair of numbers. Cambridge, which built thousands of new units, saw studios fall 10.7 percent in a year. Brookline, which built almost nothing, saw studios rise 8.9 percent in the same year, one town over.
• Never let a lease end between October and January. The same unit that rents in three weeks in spring takes six to nine weeks in late fall, in every single town. November in Brookline runs 51 days; January in Lexington, 62.
• What parking is worth depends entirely on where you are: about $800 a space in Cambridge, $450 in Medford, $375 in Waltham, and roughly $50 in Watertown and Lexington, where nearly everything comes with it.
• In unit laundry is worth $400 to $850 a month everywhere, and units without it also sit longer. It's the single most reliably valuable amenity in the dataset.
• Heat included usually means an older, cheaper building, not a bonus. Units with heat in the rent go for less in almost every town. The exception worth knowing: in Brookline, three rentals in five include heat, so there you can often get it without paying a premium.
• Allowing pets costs a landlord nothing and never hurts. Worth about $255 a month and five days of market time in Waltham, less elsewhere, negative nowhere.
• The roommate math is brutal and universal. A studio runs $4 to $6.20 per square foot; a three bedroom runs $2.20 to $3.70. Every bedroom you share roughly halves your cost per foot.
• Rents are drifting up about 2 to 4 percent on turnover in most towns, measured by the same units re renting, even where the headline medians look flat. Watertown is the one true flat market of the ten.

The full reports

Each report covers rents by bedroom count and neighborhood, how long rentals take, what it costs to move in, what features are worth, seasonality, and whether rents are rising, all with sample sizes shown and updated monthly.

• Arlington, the fastest market of the ten: median 22 days, one in six rentals gone inside a week.
• Belmont, the family market: zero studios in 25 months, and the strongest demand of any town at 78 percent full ask.
• Brookline, the biggest up front check in Greater Boston: $9,200 to move into a two bedroom.
• Cambridge, the most expensive, twelve neighborhoods compared, and the one town where studios are actually getting cheaper.
• Lexington, the house rental market: half of everything is a single family, and a four bedroom takes $15,000 to move into.
• Medford, three markets in one town: the Tufts blocks, the Wellington towers, and the two families.
• Newton, thirteen villages, one zip prefix, and a $2,700 to $5,400 spread between them.
• Somerville, rents by square, and the fastest rising rents of the ten towns.
• Waltham, the value play: the cheapest two bedroom of the ten and the lowest cash to move in.
• Watertown, our home market, fast and flat: 21 days to rent and prices that haven't moved in a year.

Where these numbers come from