Apartment hunters in Cambridge are seeing slight relief from the expensive housing market this winter.
Between November and December 2025, the median rent for one-bedroom apartments fell 0.3% to $2,990 while the median rent for two-bedroom apartments remained flat at $3,600, according to a regional report by Zumper, a digital startup that aims to help people find apartments, houses and condos to rent in North America. The report analyzed active listing data for the month of December, aggregated by city, to calculate median asking rents in the Boston metro area.
Despite last month’s dip, Cambridge rental prices overall continue to trend upward, and Cambridge remains one of the most expensive cities to rent in Massachusetts, second only to Brookline. Data provided to Cambridge Day from Zumper showed median asking rents peaked in Cambridge in 2022 before plateauing the following year.
Median rents still rising
Between December 2024 and December 2025, the median rent for both one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments in Cambridge increased by 1.7%.
Some other cities in the state also saw similar modest increases in the median rent for one-bedroom apartments over the same time period, but Medford and Portsmouth saw 8.8% and 18.5% increases, respectively. Every city listed in the report exceeds the national median rent for one-bedroom apartments of $1,501.
When it came to two-bedroom rentals, most Massachusetts towns saw single-digit increases or decreases in rent. Six, including Cambridge, saw no change.
“I think the biggest driver to a lot of cities having flat year-to-year changes is that there’s been a lot of new supply that’s come along across Greater Boston and there’s even more scheduled to be completed by the end of this year,” said Crystal Chen, the author of the report. That new supply in Cambridge includes 3,112 net new housing units in the city since 2018 and the Cambridge Housing Authority’s approval of 500 new apartments to be developed over the next five years.
Factors affecting the price of rent
Chen noted that cities that saw significant changes are small in size and have few active listings. This means they have a greater chance of fluctuating more dramatically across the board.
“Medford is a really compact city, it’s 8 or 9 square miles, so there’s really limited room for new housing,” Chen said. “So even any modest migration can move rents quickly.”
Another factor in the flat rates is economic uncertainty and the risk that poses to renters looking to live in more expensive areas.
“It seems like household formation has slowed,” Chen said. “Everyone’s complaining about how living costs are elevated and that probably prompts renters to either stay put or look further away for more affordability.”
With an increase in housing supply and modest demand for new properties in the winter months, Chen said she anticipates rents to stay relatively stable or even dip slightly. But this trend may not last, she warned.
“Once the current wave of new construction is absorbed, rents are likely going to stabilize and then gradually resume growth,” she said. “For now, renters are benefiting from more options and fewer bidding wars, so it’s good that they have greater leverage than they’re used to.”
This story was updated because a version control issue caused a draft to be posted. Separately, the photo was updated to show a more general view of Cambridge.
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I’ve been leaving $600 a month on the table???!!
Good to know….