Chelsea (2150) Tops Boston Yields at 7.7%, Inner Areas Lag

Long-term rental yields across 34 Suffolk County postcodes range from 7.7% in Chelsea (2150) down to under 2% in Boston's premium downtown ZIPs. That spread of nearly six percentage points is far wider than any difference between rental strategies at the city level, which means WHERE you buy in Greater Boston matters more than almost anything else you can decide. With short-term rentals restricted to owner-occupied primary residences across the city, long-term rental income is the only realistic path for investment buyers here, so the suburb you choose is the single biggest lever on returns. This ranking shows which Suffolk County neighborhoods lead on gross yield and explains why the pattern exists.

Chelsea (2150) Leads on Yield at 7.7%, Roughly Double the City Median

The top five Suffolk County postcodes by long-term rental gross yield are all outer-ring neighborhoods rather than inner Boston, and the price-to-rent ratio explains why. Entry prices in the leaders sit well below the city median 3-bed house price of $912,344, while monthly rents hold up at $2,800 or more thanks to transit access and proximity to Logan Airport employment.

Gross yields = annual rent / sale price. Based on 3-bed house medians. The dashboard shows every property type and bedroom count. Short-term rental columns are omitted because Boston restricts short-term rentals to owner-occupied primary residences only, so investment-property short-term rental income is not a realistic option here.

Warning: Short-term rentals in Boston are restricted to owner-occupied primary residences. Investment properties and second homes cannot be operated as short-term rentals under city ordinance. The yields above reflect long-term tenancy only. Investors looking for short-term rental returns within Massachusetts need to focus on rural Franklin County or other less-restricted jurisdictions.

Outer-Ring Suburbs Lead Because Rents Hold Up Where Prices Have Not Caught Up

Chelsea (2150) sits at the top of the ranking with a 7.7% gross yield, driven by an entry price of $458,001, roughly half the city-wide 3-bed median of $912,344. Chelsea is a small, dense city directly north of Boston connected by the Tobin Bridge and the Silver Line bus rapid transit. It has historically traded at a discount to its proximity to downtown because of its industrial character and demographics, but rents have steadily climbed as renters priced out of East Boston and Charlestown look across the harbor. The result is the widest rent-to-price gap in the county.

Revere (2151) and East Boston (2128) round out the top three with yields of 5.6% and 5.4% respectively. Both sit on the Blue Line and benefit from direct rail access to downtown plus Logan Airport employment. Revere has a beachfront and was historically working-class; East Boston has gentrified rapidly over the past decade as harborfront condos have come online. The pattern is consistent: yield concentrates in places that combine transit access with prices that still trail the inner-city peninsula. Winthrop (2152) (5.1%) and Hyde Park (2136) (5.0%) sit slightly below but follow the same logic, with Winthrop offering peninsula living and Hyde Park anchoring the southern Suffolk County edge.

None of these top suburbs are bohemian or trendy in the way that South End or Jamaica Plain might appeal to renters paying premium rents. The story here is purely arithmetic: the rent these neighborhoods can command divided by the price you pay to enter is the highest in the county. For a long-term rental investor, that is exactly the metric that matters.

The Yield-Price Trade-Off Is Stark in Boston

Cheaper suburbs yield more in Boston for a simple reason: rent does not fall in proportion to price. A 3-bed house in Chelsea (2150) costs roughly half the city median but commands monthly rent of $2,929, around two-thirds of what landlords achieve in expensive downtown ZIPs. Renters care about access to jobs, schools, and transit; they do not pay double for the privilege of a Beacon Hill address when the same commute is available from Chelsea or Revere on the Blue Line. Investors entering at $458,001 versus $912,344 therefore face a very different capital-risk profile, with roughly half the deposit requirement and meaningfully lower mortgage exposure.

The flip side is that premium Boston suburbs are not bought for yield. Buyers in Back Bay or Beacon Hill are pricing in long-term capital appreciation, prestige, walkability to downtown employment, and the deep liquidity of an established prime market. Their gross yields can sit at 3% or below and still represent a defensible investment when total return (income plus appreciation) is considered over a full hold period. The high-yield outer suburbs make their money on cash flow today; the premium suburbs make their money on the eventual sale.

Premium Boston Suburbs Trade Yield for Capital Growth and Liquidity

For context, here is how some of Boston's most in-demand suburbs compare. These are established neighborhoods where investors typically accept lower yields in exchange for capital growth, liquidity, and tenant quality.

High-demand suburbs for context. Same methodology as the yield ranking above. Short-term rental yields are not shown because Boston prohibits investment-property short-term rentals; these premium neighborhoods are not a workaround.

The premium suburbs yield less on long-term rental because buyers are paying a premium for things the rental market does not fully reward, including walkability to downtown, period architecture, school catchments, and the certainty of selling quickly when needed. The Boston short-term rental ban applies equally to these prestigious addresses, so the usual escape valve (converting to short-term rental to lift gross income) is not available. That makes the appreciation thesis the entire investment case in premium Suffolk County.

What the Yield Ranking Does Not Show

A high gross yield can mean depressed prices rather than strong rents, and that distinction matters. Some of the high-yield outer suburbs have seen slower price appreciation than inner Boston over the past decade, which is part of why the rent-to-price ratio sits where it does. An investor focused purely on yield captures more income today but may capture less appreciation over a 10-year hold; an investor in a premium ZIP earns less now but participates in Boston's long-term price growth. Total return is the relevant metric, not gross yield in isolation.

Vacancy and tenant quality are the other limitations the table cannot show. Outer-suburb rental pools can be thinner and more rate-sensitive than inner-Boston demand, which sits on top of Boston's universities, hospitals, and biotech employment. Maintenance demands, insurance costs (particularly in coastal ZIPs like Revere and Winthrop where flood insurance applies), and condition of the housing stock all vary by neighborhood and can erode the headline yield once you operate the property. The dashboard models these costs at the ZIP level so you can see how the gross yield translates into a net figure.

View Boston in the dashboard → Free preview · every bedroom count and property type

Boston's City Median Beats Massachusetts but Trails the National Average

Suffolk County's median long-term rental gross yield of 4.2% sits above the Massachusetts state median of 3.4% but below the national median of 5.3%. The state figure is dragged down by similarly priced or even more expensive Boston-area markets like Cambridge and Brookline; the national figure reflects much cheaper housing markets across the Sun Belt and Midwest where 3-bed houses sell for closer to $242,500. Chelsea (2150) at 7.7% is the only Suffolk County postcode that meaningfully clears the national median; Hyde Park (2136) and below all sit roughly in line with the national figure. The premium downtown Boston ZIPs sit well below it. For investors comparing Boston against other US markets purely on gross yield, the answer depends entirely on which postcode you select. The same investor capital deployed in Suffolk County versus a 7%-yielding southern market will earn very different cash returns, even before considering the Boston short-term rental restrictions that close off the higher-yield path entirely.

The dashboard ranks all 34 Suffolk County postcodes against state and national medians, and lets you filter by bedroom count, property type, and price band to find the suburb that fits your specific deposit and yield targets. Explore rental data in the dashboard for the full ranking, or read the market score methodology and data sources for how the figures are derived.

Data reflects market conditions as of April 2026.

This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Boston's short-term rental ordinance changes periodically and is enforced at the city level. Verify current rules with the City of Boston Inspectional Services Department before making investment decisions.