{"items": [{"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628716644682", "anchor": "fb-628716644682", "service": "fb", "text": "If most leases are 9/1 - 8/31, then why are there more apartments listed on 7/1 than 9/1?", "timestamp": "1379611234"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628717318332", "anchor": "fb-628717318332", "service": "fb", "text": "@Michael: I think what's going on is people lining up apartments in advance. June/July is when I think of people in Boston as figuring out where they're going to live for the next year.", "timestamp": "1379611664"}, {"author": "BDan", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628717358252", "anchor": "fb-628717358252", "service": "fb", "text": "Because a lot of the 9/1 apartments get listed two to three months before the lease ends -- most leases around here require 60 days notice, and most landlords will try to get a decision from the tenant sometime before that.
What I am more curious about is the still substantial number of apartments listed in February.", "timestamp": "1379611686"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628717557852", "anchor": "fb-628717557852", "service": "fb", "text": "Wow, that does make sense. In Seattle, by contrast, it's 20 days notice.", "timestamp": "1379611771"}, {"author": "Alex", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628718595772", "anchor": "fb-628718595772", "service": "fb", "text": "Why isn't there more data like this out there? I know a lot of folks who would be / would have been interested in knowing the best time to try to move to NYC, myself included.", "timestamp": "1379612395"}, {"author": "Johanna", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628718950062", "anchor": "fb-628718950062", "service": "fb", "text": "I've always said this, but I LOVE seeing the data to support it :)
I'm surprised June 1 is as low as it is though -- I thought it was the next most common lease date.", "timestamp": "1379612648"}, {"author": "Wayne", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628720287382", "anchor": "fb-628720287382", "service": "fb", "text": "", "timestamp": "1379613826"}, {"author": "Brad", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/116032343632043704302", "anchor": "gp-1379615019437", "service": "gp", "text": "I live in Montr\u00e9al, where almost all leases expire on June 30, so July 1 (Canada Day) is called \"Moving Day\" around here. It's insane: you have to book movers at least four months in advance if you hope to snag someone before they're entirely booked, and most of the movers jack up their prices on July 1. The sidewalks are congested with cast-off furniture, and sometimes people have to wait outside with all their stuff while the current occupants move out. Traditional moving-day supper is pizza and beer, and the pizza shops do a booming business on July 1. The other thing like that up here is the \"vacances de la construction,\" in which all construction workers take their vacation during the same two-week period in late July. All construction stops and equipment sits idle on half-repaired roads; if you need any repairs or construction done during that period you're out of luck.\u00a0", "timestamp": 1379615019}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628728860202", "anchor": "fb-628728860202", "service": "fb", "text": "@Rose: not a surprise that there are fewer, but I didn't expect 10x fewer.", "timestamp": "1379619309"}, {"author": "Satvik", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628728984952", "anchor": "fb-628728984952", "service": "fb", "text": "No wonder I had such a hard time getting my current lease (which I did last October, not knowing about the September 1st issue).", "timestamp": "1379619430"}, {"author": "Phillip", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628742083702", "anchor": "fb-628742083702", "service": "fb", "text": "The number I have heard is that the population changes by 250K. Most of these folks are in college owned housing, but clearly not all. combine with people who want to be here in time for their kids to start school and you get a lot of demand.", "timestamp": "1379629140"}, {"author": "Kate", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628759698402", "anchor": "fb-628759698402", "service": "fb", "text": "The flip side is that several of the apartment complexes we looked at have been eagerly calling, telling us that their rents just went down, because the DEMAND for apartments goes way down, too. I wouldn't intentionally try to game the system, but it's not the absolute number of apartments available that matters, it's the number of apartments relative to the number of prospective renters. All of which is to say that our Oct 5. lease was not terribly tricky to get.", "timestamp": "1379640285"}, {"author": "John", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628764598582", "anchor": "fb-628764598582", "service": "fb", "text": "I've occasionally seen Boston characterized as the world's largest college town. Most college towns tend to be around 10% students, and 250,000 students is about 10% of the Boston metro area's population, so the term applies pretty well. And in the US, September is usually the start of the school year.", "timestamp": "1379643671"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628771943862", "anchor": "fb-628771943862", "service": "fb", "text": "@Kate: \"it's not the absolute number of apartments available that matters\"
Depends how picky you are.", "timestamp": "1379648659"}, {"author": "BDan", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628779518682", "anchor": "fb-628779518682", "service": "fb", "text": "Philip, I suspect that one of the bigger factors is graduate students, most of whom are probably not in college owned housing.", "timestamp": "1379654385"}, {"author": "Kate", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628788520642", "anchor": "fb-628788520642", "service": "fb", "text": "Having just moved from Bloomington, Indiana, having previously lived in Greater Boston most of my life: seriously, Boston is less of a college town than it wants to think it is.", "timestamp": "1379673686"}, {"author": "Nathaniel", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628793894872", "anchor": "fb-628793894872", "service": "fb", "text": "I've never lived in Bloomington, which I imagine would be mostly cornfields if it weren't for the university, but there's no denying that Boston feels half-empty during the summer, and if it weren't for the summer tourists, it would feel even emptier. Of the people left in Boston during the summer, we're all either employed by a local college or graduated from one and never left.", "timestamp": "1379680655"}, {"author": "Daniel", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628716390192?comment_id=628810865862", "anchor": "fb-628810865862", "service": "fb", "text": "John, my \"college town\" was WAY more than 10% college folk.
I went to Williams College. According to the 2010 census, there were 7,754 people in Williamstown. According to 2012 college statistics (I'm assuming they haven't changed dramatically in those two years, but 2010 stats weren't as easy to track down), there were 2106 students (graduate and undergraduate). That's just over 27% college students. If you include other people affiliated with the college, such as faculty, administrative staff, janitors, security, chefs, it would be a lot larger than that.", "timestamp": "1379691935"}]}