Highest rents in Boston: West End, Back Bay neighborhoods

By Sara Brown, Town Correspondent

Boston's West End and Bay Bay neighborhoods have the highest rents in the city for a two-bedroom apartment, according to information from a real estate website.

The West End leads other neighborhood in the rental price for a two-bedroom apartment, at $2,746, while the average Back Bay two-bedroom, at $2,648, is the second highest in the city, according to rentalbeast.com.

An article in Monday's Globe said apartment-seekers in Boston are dealing with high demand and increasingly high rents, with Boston the fifth-most expensive rental market in the nation.

Nick Warren, the CEO of the Warren Residential Group and Warren Rentals, said he doubted that the West End belongs at the top of the list. "That definitely wouldn't be up there," he said.

Warren said the top neighborhoods for him, in terms of price and demand, remain Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and the South End.

However, Warren emphasized that demand for apartments is the highest he's seen in the five years he's been in business. "We literally have to tell [apartment seekers] to bring an application and a checkbook to the showing," he said.

Apartments that used to rent for $2,300 are now going for $3,000 or more because of demand, Warren said. Recently, a Back Bay rental that went for $3,000 last year was rented "in an hour" for $3,250.

"We probably could've gotten $3,500 for it," he added.

According to the article, high rents and low availability are attributed to the stalled housing market, the foreclosure crisis, and an influx of graduate students. An estimated 20,000 graduate students have been added to the Boston area in the past 10 years.

The North End, Charlestown, and the South End round out the top five most-expensive areas.