We just found a place in the suburbs, after several weeks of fruitless hunting. A broker took us to see a vacancy in a 2-family in Belmont. As we arrived, the owner emerged from the apartment and happily announced that it was rented. The broker had called him not 15 minutes earlier to confirm the appointment. "Well, he gave me an application, I ran his credit, and he's coming tomorrow to sign the lease," the man said happily. "But you can still see it... in case it falls through...." So we toured an absurdly overpriced, smallish home. No AC - it was hot and stuffy. Coin-op shared laundry machines in the basement ("why coin-op?" my wife asked. "Because of the water bills," replied the owner). We just spend four years living in Phoenix, where a modern air conditioned 3-bed 2-bath apartment (with swimming pool, plenty of parking, modern appliances) costs $1200 to $1400 in the most upscale locations, and a basic 2-bedroom is more like $600 or $700 around town. The low end starts at around $400 (move in special: one free month). Houses are renting for $900 to $1100. Of course, why rent when you can own? Lots of modern, comfortable 3 bed, 2 bath 2 car houses going for around $100K, and let's not forget 3% mortgage rates. Boston should "permit" unlimited apartment development, and then supply would catch up with demand. Why not? It provides tons of construction jobs, increases the tax base, and encourages professionals as well as middle income and working class families to stay in Boston rather than vote with their feet and move elsewhere. We don't want Boston and its surrounding areas to turn into a rich person's boutique; that is in no one's best interest.

P.S. Dear boston globe : please allow paragraphing!

And yet, the guy who bought all those apartments in Malden is getting a hard time for raising rents up to $1000, because it is too expensive...it isn't even close to market rate. He is the subject of protests. He should just evict those people and rent all those apartments in 2 days. I own a home in Medford and our property taxes have gone up every year despite the drop in property values and water and utilities...so rents have to increase if you have a renter. The owners are not all the rich people that renters imagine...they have a finite amount of money too and their expenses continue to go up.

Some additional points: 1) these rental prices aren't adjusted for size. For example, Back Bay and Beacon Hill apts are far smaller than most other neighborhoods so, not only are they more expensive, they are Far more expensive on a square footage basis. 2) these are the apts that show up in ads and with brokers, which tend to be the better places than those rented thru signs or word of mouth, so the average rent appears higher than it actually is. 3) these are only the market rate apts. where I live, in the South End, it appears that over half the dwellings are public sector - huge projects, smaller projects, town houses, and one or two floor condo-types. The rents here are very low (and these units are not on the property tax rolls, btw) and are not reflected in the average price. And, while they should not be included when tallying average rents, their presence plays a big role in that they then reduce the number of market rate units and thus drive up their rents. Not that the article isn't pretty good, just sayin...