Should I look for an apartment to move in on September 1st or October 1st? (Boston: real estate)

[stemcellguy]

After a long and frustrating day of apartment hunting, I stopped at a small restaurant to get some takeout. A lady was there waiting, and we *struck up a conversation. She's been a real estate agent for 20 years, however she primarily works in Boston, whereas I'm looking in Arlington and Newton. Her advise was to wait until October 1st since it would be easier and cheaper. I'm interested in what you think. With less competition, it seems that*rents might fall slightly. But I'm afraid we'll only have a few options.

[brightdoglover]

Dunno about cheaper. The mad rush for Sept. 1 by students and people on those kind of yearly leases eases. There is always competition for good apartments. Fewer frantic apartment searches by Oct. 1, true. Good luck.

[msRB311]

I would say waiting to buy a house until winter but might be worth it? Maaaybe there'd be better deals to be had than right now. Not sure on renting.

[Moh1988]

You should widen your search beyond Arlington & Newton. Plenty of towns with good access to Cambridge. Malden, Somerville, Medford, Watertown, Waltham, Belmont, and down south is Quincy.
That's something I heard from few realtors when I was in your shoes last year,,, stay away from September. I ended up finding a place 3 weeks before moving to Town (in May). Rent never goes down in this town. Good luck with your search.

https://www.zillow.com/b/windsor-vil...ham-ma-5XjD4K/
This is a relatively cheaper option for two bedrooms.

[BosYuppie]

The vast majority of rentals go on Sept 1. If you can avoid that cycle you will face less competition and hence things will be a bit easier. A lot of the september rentals are already spoken for by june or august. But I think the difference between September and October is going to be less noticable than the difference between say September and May or something like that.

I agree that especially if renting you should expand your area.

[matrix5k]

Sept 1 is the worst day to move in simply from all the traffic. I've never seen rent go down before, it either stays the same or goes up in my experience.

[G-fused]

There will be a lot fewer options. And really, most places are spoken for already. It's a tough market and people snatch things up in June/July/Aug (already late though) to make sure they have a place by September. Especially in places like Newton and Arlington. And I don't think prices will come down much in October anyway, not enough to justify waiting and taking a risk of a much worse place because everything will have been rented already).

No way around it, this is a tough market. I would grab what I could and swallow the cost. The alternative would not be worth it, but that is just how I roll. You may be different.

Best of luck.