🏡 A renter’s secret weapon

It’s Wednesday, Boston.

🚨 Freebie alert: Rev’d Indoor Cycling just launched a schedule of classes coached in Spanish at its Copley location, so to celebrate, they’re letting you spin in one for free tonight at 7:30 p.m. Book it here!

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Return to office blues

• She doesn’t even go here

• The cutest PR

Up first …

RENTING

It’s deal season

If holiday sales come after Christmas, then what comes after Allston Christmas? According to BostonPads CEO Demetrios Salpoglou, something quite similar: “This is deal season.”

So if you’re on the apartment hunt, here’s how to score one:

😮‍💨 With the Sept. 1 rush behind us, the rental market has hit a plateau. Average prices for Boston-area apartments have stayed relatively stable over the last 40 days, according to Salpoglou, with the average rent in Boston sitting just north of $3,100, an unpleasant reminder that we’re still the third-most-expensive metro for renters.

🥶 But that plateau will likely to change soon thanks to Mother Nature. Believe it or not, cold weather is a renter’s secret weapon for landing a deal. “That’s when I generally see landlords drop their prices to avoid frozen pipes,” Salpoglou said. “A landlord never wants to leave a unit vacant going into winter.”

👀 If you’re looking for a deal, your lucky number is 20. Local apartments are currently sitting on the market for a median of 19 days, according to Salpoglou. He thinks it’s totally fair game to start negotiating on day 20, whether that be on a free parking space, reducing the broker's fee, or shaving off some rent. The only time you might run into pushback is if the landlord just completed renovations, “they’re going to ask for more,” he said.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 If you’ve got a squad, even better. Salpoglou said landlords of units with multiple bedrooms tend to discount them more in the off-season because their mortgages are generally higher. That said, even if you’re flying solo or with a smaller crew, he suggests keeping an eye on how many apartments of a particular style you’re after are in proximity to one another. For example, “if there’s a lot of two-beds in close proximity to one another, you probably have better negotiation strength” on your own two-bed, he said.

🤑 So, where are the deals? Roslindale, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Dorchester, East Boston, and Roxbury are neighborhoods Salpoglou recommends for deals. But other neighborhoods have seen considerable dips since last September: According to data from Apartment Advisor, the median price of studios in Brighton dropped over 20% ($2,700 to $2,150); one-beds in the North End dropped ​13% ($3,450 to $3,000); and three-bed-plus units in Charlestown slipped about 34% ($7,000 to $4,600).

🏡 Just remember: While the market may loosen up, it’s still pretty tight. Despite the vacancy rate of Boston-area apartments going up 41% in the last year, it still remains at an abysmal .78% (lol), with only 946 apartments available as of Tuesday.

TOGETHER WITH HARVARD BOOKSTORE

Looking for some positive inspiration?

Yung Pueblo, a No. 1 New York Times bestselling poet (with 2.7M IG followers), is coming to The Emerson Colonial Theater on Friday, 10/13 to discuss his latest poetry collection, The Way Forward. The night, presented by Harvard Book Store, will highlight the author’s newest work that leads audiences towards a life lived authentically, intuitively, and in harmony with others. Get tickets HERE (tickets start at $35 and include a signed copy of The Way Forward).

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

😭 The return-to-work blues are REAL. Local workers are much more likely to be spotted in the office at least some of the time compared with last year. And according to a poll from the Boston Business Journal, they’re not feeling it. 54% of workers who reported an increase in in-office time also reported a decrease in satisfaction with their work in their new arrangement, with literally zero percent of that same group reporting an increase in satisfaction. But can you blame them? Since when has a 45-minute T commute improved one’s quality of life?

🎒“She doesn’t even go here” — probably a Northeastern student. Starting your first semester of college in London is all fun and games until you come back to Boston without friends and serious FOMO. At least that’s been the experience of some Northeastern students. 3,250 students in this year’s freshmen class will spend some or all of their first year away before coming to Boston as increased interest in NU means fewer on-campus housing options. And some students report these programs complicate the transition to college life, straining a Boston campus without extra space.

🌳 Boston is about to throw some serious shade. But instead of drama, it’s trees. Mayor Wu announced last week that Boston received over $11 million in federal funding for the city’s trees and forestry as a part of her larger plan to address the impacts of extreme heat caused by climate change. The funds will go toward three goals: taking better care of existing trees, training programs for careers in forestry and environmental justice, and growing urban forests and tree canopy. Or, as Sen. Markey said: “We shook the money trees, and we got green for green.”

🏓 Get ready to dink in Natick. Pickleball could be coming to the Natick Mall. After plans to turn the mall’s former Neiman Marcus into lab space fell through, a new idea emerged: a state-of-the-art pickleball club. The proposed club would feature ​​21 courts, a restaurant, two bars, locker rooms, and a gym. Pending approval of the planning board, the club could be in business by mid-2024. Additional details, including pricing, are still TBD.

— Written by Gia Orsino

QUICK QUESTION!

🏢 Has going back to the office changed your job satisfaction?

TOGETHER WITH BLUE RIBBON BBQ

Giveaway alert!

Enter to win a $50 gift card to try Time Out Market Boston's newest vendor, Blue Ribbon BBQ! If you’ve already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

ONE LAST THING

The cutest PR

A Bostonian gave up her chance at a personal record at the Chicago Marathon for the cutest possible reason: to save a kitten.

Sarah Bohan was at mile 20, running at a pace that would have earned her a personal best time, when she spotted a kitten shivering on the side of the road. Without missing a beat, Bohan stopped her run to grab the kitten. Then she walked for about a mile to find a spectator who could take the kitten to the vet.

Then she finished the race in 3 hours, 31 minutes (which is way faster than I could imagine finishing without a 20-minute detour.) The best part? The whole reason Bohan got a spot in the race was because she raised over $1,700 for PAWS Chicago, an animal welfare organization.

— Written by Gia Orsino

😺 Thanks for reading! That is some seriously impressive cat karma.

💉 The results are in: About a third of B-Side readers have either had their COVID and flu shots and another third haven’t gotten either. One wrote, “so many places are ‘out’ of the COVID booster. I've had my appointment rescheduled three times already!”