Landlord & Rentals

August 25, 2026 By Krista Recker

Quincy's apartment vacancy rate is roughly 2%. Boston Pads' July 2026 Quincy market report put the city's real-time vacancy rate at 1.97% and its real-time availability rate at 2.72%. A year earlier, in its June 2025 Quincy report, the same source had those figures at 0.85% and 1.13%. So vacancy in Quincy has roughly doubled in twelve months.

Here is the part that makes this interesting rather than alarming. Rents went up anyway. Boston Pads reported average Quincy rent of $2,511 in July 2026, up 6.40% from a year earlier. Vacancy doubling while rents climb 6% is not the picture of a market falling apart. It is the picture of a market that had almost no slack at all and now has a little.

What that small amount of slack means depends entirely on which side of the lease you are on, and on which "vacancy rate" you are actually looking at. There are three different numbers going by that name in Quincy, and they do not measure the same thing.

Who this applies to

This is for Quincy landlords deciding whether to renew a tenant at the current rent or push for an increase, owners of two and three family properties pricing a unit that is turning over, and investors underwriting a Quincy purchase who need a vacancy assumption that will survive contact with reality.

It is also for renters, especially anyone moving to Quincy from Boston, Dorchester, or Braintree who wants to know whether they have any leverage this year.

If you want the wider picture on rents, unit mix, and investor returns rather than the vacancy mechanics specifically, my Quincy rental market report covers that ground.

What is the difference between vacancy rate and availability rate?

Vacancy rate counts units that are empty and available right now. Availability rate counts those units plus units being marketed for future availability, including occupied units where the tenant has already given notice. Availability will be equal to or greater than vacancy, and it is the better early-warning signal.

This distinction is where most owners go wrong. A landlord looking at a 1.97% vacancy rate concludes there is almost nothing to compete with. But the 2.72% availability rate is telling you that more competition is already listed, it just has not physically emptied out yet. Availability describes what your unit will face in about six weeks. Vacancy describes what it faces today.

Both of those are Boston Pads figures, and they are proprietary measures calculated on that company's own tracked listing inventory. They are a real-time snapshot of one large database, not an official government count of Quincy.

The official count is a different number entirely. The U.S. Census Bureau's Housing Vacancy Survey reports rental vacancy at the state level using a broader definition that captures units off the market, under repair, or held vacant for other reasons. Massachusetts' rental vacancy rate was 3.2% in 2024 by that survey, up from 2.5% in 2023. That is noticeably higher than the Quincy listing-database figure, and neither is wrong. They count different things.

Figures in this section checked against Boston Pads' published Quincy and Boston market reports and the U.S. Census Bureau Housing Vacancy Survey, reviewed in August 2026.

Measure	What it counts	Latest figure	Use it when you are
Real-time vacancy rate, Boston Pads	Units empty and available now within Boston Pads' tracked listing inventory	Quincy 1.97% in the July 2026 report, up from 0.85% in June 2025	A landlord asking how many empty competing units a prospective tenant can physically walk into this week
Real-time availability rate, Boston Pads	The above plus units marketed for future availability, including occupied units where notice has been given	Quincy 2.72% in the July 2026 report, up from 1.13% in June 2025	A landlord pricing a unit that will not be ready for four to eight weeks, or a renter deciding when to start searching
Census Housing Vacancy Survey rental vacancy rate	All vacant rental units by a broader statistical definition, reported at state level only	Massachusetts 3.2% in 2024, up from 2.5% in 2023	Comparing Massachusetts against other states or building a long-term thesis, never pricing an individual Quincy unit
Your own portfolio vacancy	Days your specific units sat empty divided by total available days over the last two years	You calculate this from your own records	Underwriting a Quincy two or three family, because this is the only figure that reflects your actual building, street, and unit quality, and it is what a lender or serious buyer will ask for

Is Quincy's rental market getting tighter or looser in 2026?

Looser, and the same is true across the wider region. In its April 2026 report, Boston Pads put the City of Boston real-time vacancy rate at 1.43%, up 72.29% year over year, with a Boston availability rate of 7.21%. Greater Boston stood at 1.68% vacancy and 6.46% availability, the latter up 36.58% year over year. Boston Pads described that April figure as the fourth consecutive year of vacancy increases in Boston, following the unusually tight conditions of 2022, and projected the Boston rate would exceed 3% by September 2, 2026.

Treat that 3% as a forecast made in April, not as a result. I have not seen post-September data confirming it, and I would rather flag that than let a projection read like history.

Rent growth tells a more mixed story. Greater Boston average rent was reported at $3,233, up 1.04% year over year, which is close to flat. Quincy's 6.40% is well above that. Regional softening usually reaches the satellite cities on a lag, so the gap between those two numbers is worth watching rather than celebrating.

Figures in this section are from Boston Pads' April 2026 regional report and July 2026 Quincy report, reviewed in August 2026. Boston Pads' rates are proprietary measures on its own tracked inventory, and a rising availability rate partly reflects how much inventory gets listed and how early.

Does Quincy follow Boston's September 1 lease cycle?

Not really, and this is the assumption I see cost Quincy owners the most money. Boston Pads' Quincy reporting describes Quincy as a market with comparatively little seasonality and a much steadier leasing pattern than Boston's academic-calendar neighborhoods.

The Boston swing is dramatic. Boston Pads reported Boston's 2025 vacancy hitting an annual low around 0.74% in late August and peaking at 1.85% in early September. That is more than double inside about two weeks, driven by the student calendar.

Quincy does not do that. It has students and it has September 1 moves, but it is not a student-dependent market. Its renters are a mix of Boston commuters, families, and long-term residents whose lease dates are spread across the year. The practical consequences:

1. You do not have a single make-or-break listing window. An owner who misses "the July window" in Boston can lose a season. In Quincy, the penalty is much smaller.
2. You also do not get Boston's September relief valve as a renter. If you are searching in Quincy right now, waiting three weeks will not flood the market with options the way it would in Allston.
3. Your competition is more local than seasonal. What matters is how many comparable units are listed on your street this month, not what month it is.
4. Steadier demand cuts both ways. Fewer dramatic swings means less risk of a unit sitting through a dead season, and less opportunity to catch a demand spike.
5. Do not price your Quincy unit off Boston seasonality advice. Most rental content online is written about Boston proper, and Quincy is a different market wearing the same regional label.

What does the vacancy rate mean for a Quincy landlord?

It means you still have pricing power, and it also means a vacancy is expensive. Those pull against each other, which is why tight markets produce so much bad pricing.

Run the arithmetic on your own unit rather than the citywide average. On a Quincy two bedroom at $3,000 a month, one empty month is $3,000 of scheduled rent you do not collect. Spread across the following twelve months, recovering it would take about $250 a month of additional rent. So if pushing for an extra $150 a month creates a real chance of an extra month empty, the increase loses money even though the higher number looks better on paper.

That is a simplified illustration, not a forecast. It leaves out leasing fees, concessions, utilities you carry while the unit is empty, turnover repairs and paint, collection risk, and the question of whether the market will actually support the higher rent at all.

The broader point: vacancy near 2% means a correctly priced unit leases quickly. It does not mean any price leases. Renters in a tight market still compare your unit against every other listing within walking distance. What low vacancy buys you is speed, not immunity.

Is there a limit on how much a Quincy landlord can raise rent?

There is no general cap. Quincy has no local rent control or rent stabilization ordinance, and Massachusetts' statewide Rent Control Prohibition Act, M.G.L. c. 40P, remains in effect in 2026. A proposed statewide rent control ballot measure did not become law, having been blocked from the ballot by the Supreme Judicial Court.

That does not mean anything goes. Four real constraints still apply:

1. During a fixed-term lease, you generally cannot raise the rent at all unless the lease itself authorizes it, for example through a valid tax escalator clause or another agreed adjustment. The lease governs until it ends.
2. For a tenancy at will, commonly month to month, you generally must give written notice at least 30 days or one full rental period before the next rent due date, whichever is longer, before a rent change takes effect. The governing framework is M.G.L. c. 186, section 12. In practice the notice ends the existing tenancy at the old rent and offers a new tenancy at the new rent, and a tenant who does not agree may leave instead of accepting.
3. An increase cannot be discriminatory, and it cannot be retaliatory. The Massachusetts Attorney General's office identifies rent increases within six months of certain protected tenant activities, such as reporting a code violation, as potentially subject to a presumption of retaliation.
4. Voucher holders, subsidized units, and some specialized housing arrangements carry additional approval or notice requirements. The general rule above is not universal, so check the specific program before you send a notice.

Legal points in this section checked against M.G.L. c. 40P, M.G.L. c. 186 section 12, and Massachusetts Attorney General guidance in August 2026. This is general information rather than legal advice, and a landlord facing a specific dispute should talk to a Massachusetts attorney.

What does the vacancy rate mean if you are renting in Quincy right now?

You have slightly more room than you did a year ago, and less than the headlines about Boston might suggest. Vacancy near 2% is still a landlord's market by national standards. The national rental vacancy rate runs meaningfully higher.

Because Quincy has little seasonality, the timing advice you may have read for Boston does not transfer. Waiting for mid-September will not produce a wave of new Quincy inventory. What helps you here is being ready to move quickly on a unit that is priced right, and knowing the going rate well enough to recognize one.

Figures below are from Boston Pads' July 2026 Quincy report, reviewed in August 2026. These are average rents on that company's tracked inventory, not medians, and listing portals commonly report higher figures because they sample different inventory.

Unit type	Average Quincy rent, July 2026	Change year over year	What this means for you
One bedroom	$2,106	Up 1.45%	A renter in a Quincy one bedroom who is offered a 2026 renewal increase above roughly 1.5% is being asked for more than this segment of the market actually moved
Two bedroom	$2,669	Up 4.34%	Two people splitting a Quincy two bedroom pay roughly $1,335 each, materially less than one person renting a one bedroom alone, which is why roommate demand stays strong here
All unit types citywide	$2,511	Up 6.40%	The citywide figure rose faster than either individual unit type, which points to a mix shift, meaning newer and more expensive units entering the tracked inventory rather than existing tenants seeing 6% increases

That last row deserves the extra sentence. When an overall average climbs more than any of its components, the composition of what is being counted has usually changed. For a renter, it means the scary citywide number probably overstates what your own renewal should look like. For a landlord, it means you cannot justify a 6% increase by pointing at the citywide average.

Quincy is majority renter. In the 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Table B25003, renter-occupied units accounted for about 57.5% of Quincy's occupied housing stock, 26,532 of 46,181 occupied units. That share is of occupied units, so vacant units are excluded from the denominator. This is not a homeowner city with some apartments attached.

How do you find the real vacancy rate for your own building or street?

The citywide number is a starting point, not an answer, and you can do better in about an hour:

1. Search active Quincy listings filtered to your unit type within a half mile and count them. That raw count tells you more about your competition than any percentage.
2. Note how long each competing listing has been up. Three listings that have all sat 30 days means something very different from three that went up yesterday.
3. Run the same search in the closest comparable neighborhood, Wollaston against North Quincy, or Quincy Point against Quincy Center, so you know whether you are seeing a citywide condition or a street-level one.
4. Pull your own building's history. Days vacant per unit over the past two years is the most honest vacancy number you will ever have.
5. Check what new construction is delivering nearby. Quincy has substantial development activity, and a new building leasing up two blocks away changes your competitive picture far more than a citywide statistic will.

For underwriting a purchase, many investors model a 5% to 8% vacancy and credit loss reserve, well above the market rate, because that assumption also has to absorb turnover time, a missed month, and lease-up delays. That is common practice rather than a Massachusetts rule or a Quincy benchmark, and it should be adjusted for the property's actual turnover history, tenant base, condition, and current competing inventory. Underwriting a Quincy multi-family at the 2% market vacancy rate is how deals look excellent on a spreadsheet and disappoint in year one.

The Bottom Line

Quincy's apartment vacancy rate was 1.97% in Boston Pads' July 2026 report, roughly double a year earlier, with availability at 2.72%. Rents rose 6.40% over the same period. The market loosened without softening.

For landlords, the pricing power is still real but the margin for error has narrowed, and there is no rent cap in Massachusetts to worry about, only lease terms, notice requirements, and anti-retaliation rules. For renters, you have modestly more room than in 2025, though not the September relief valve that Boston renters get, because Quincy does not run on the academic calendar.

The number that should actually drive your decision is not the citywide rate. It is how many comparable units are competing with yours, on your street, this month. Everything else is context.

If you own a rental in Quincy and you are weighing whether to renew your current tenant or turn the unit over, or you are underwriting a two or three family and want a vacancy assumption that will hold up, reach out through the contact page. I will pull the competing listings on your specific street rather than hand you the citywide average, and you will know where you stand before you commit to anything.