Mission Hill Hit Hard with Vacancies- Deals To Be Had For Renters

Mission Hill is no stranger to apartment turnover. It’s situated close to Boston University and Northeastern University, two of the area’s largest schools. This small neighborhood is heavily populated with students, so it makes sense that in September there is a lot of apartment turnover here.

So when a global pandemic comes to town and shuts down most of the areas biggest schools, you could imagine that would cause some upheaval in the local rental market. As of today, Mission Hill has the 6th highest vacancy rate out of all of the neighborhoods in Boston at 6.48%. That’s a 494% increase in vacant apartments since December of 2019.

Vacancy rate is a great indicator of current market conditions, but availability rate is an even better indicator of future supply. It is calculated by adding the number of currently vacant apartments and the number of apartments becoming available, and dividing that into the total apartment supply. If the availability rate is high, it indicates that vacancies will increase due to leases expiring without new tenants moving in.

Right now, Mission Hill has the 4th highest availability rate out of 30 Boston neighborhoods. It sits at 12.92%. This indicates that many apartments becoming available are still unrented, and vacancy numbers are sure to get worse if landlords don’t find ways to keep their units filled.

While this is bad for the overall market, it is good if you’re a renter. According to Boston Pads, there are 268 Mission Hill apartments available, and 112 of them are currently offering no fee for moving in. That means a whopping 40% of apartments are waiving deposit fees to incentivize renters.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” remarks Demetrios Salpoglou, CEO of Boston Pads. “Usually less than 3% of rentals offer waived fees in Mission Hill. Landlords are desperate to get their units filled.”

While prices have dropped quite a bit in Mission Hill already, we anticipate that trend to continue into January as the second semester begins in Boston. It doesn’t appear like local universities will stray from the remote learning model, in which case apartments in places like Mission Hill will likely remain empty.

All data provided by Boston Pads. We will continue to monitor this situation as it progresses.