Annual rent growth in Boston slowed over the past three months to 6.3 percent in July, causing Boston to slip from the fifth best rental market in the country last summer to just the 26th-ranked market last month, according to research from Dallas-based multifamily analysts Axiometric.
For 2012, Axiometric predicted strong rent growth in Boston at or near an annualized rate of 5.4 percent., along with continued absorption which will raise occupancy by 50 basis points, to 96.8 percent.
"The recent change in [Boston’s] rank shows how strong the apartment market is right now for 25 other markets to have better than 6.3 percent annual rent growth," the company said in a statement.
Nationally, annual effective rent growth reached 5.36 percent in July. Year-to-date effective rental rates (rents net of concessions) through the end of July increased by 4.8 percent, ahead of both the 4.01 percent growth rate at the same point a year ago and the full-year growth rate for 2010 of 4.64 percent.
The national occupancy rate in July stood at 93.95 percent, essentially flat compared to the past two months, the company said.
