Boston rent changes a lot depending on which side of the city you call home.
RentCafe’s September data puts the average rent in larger Boston apartment buildings at about $3,710 a month.
Among the neighborhoods below, averages range from $2,741 in Dorchester to $4,793 in Back Bay.
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Back Bay: $4,793
Fenway and Kenmore: $4,046
South End: $3,916
Allston and Brighton: $3,349
East Boston: $3,241
Jamaica Plain: $3,173
Mission Hill: $3,105
Dorchester: $2,741
For students, some of the biggest differences show up around major campus neighborhoods.
Living around Fenway and Kenmore averages about $697 more per month than Allston and Brighton, while Mission Hill comes in about $941 below Fenway and Kenmore.
Back Bay averages $1,444 more per month than Allston and Brighton.
For students comparing off-campus housing, those gaps can make neighborhoods farther from campus significantly cheaper on paper.
Lower neighborhood averages can come with a longer commute, while apartments closer to campus often carry a location premium.
In Boston, moving a few stops down the line can change the average rent by hundreds of dollars every month.
These are September 2026 RentCafe averages based on Yardi Matrix data for apartment buildings with 50 or more units. They do not represent every rental in each neighborhood, so smaller buildings, individual listings and roommate setups can look very different.
