Median Zillow Rent Index per square foot in Boston and Cambridge

After seeing this article on BostInno I knew something was not quite right about their reporting. West Cambridge in the top 5 median rents? Brighton rents being a third less than any other neighborhood? Their charts use the median unit price data, which does not distinguish between different types of units. I downloaded the Zillow data myself and prepared a few charts of the Median Zillow Rent Index per square foot, which I believe produces a lot more sensible looking results. And in case you are curious, I have plotted all of the data available since 2010:





Here is the data for March 2015 in a sorted table:

Region Name	City	ZRI per SF
South Dorchester	Boston	1.584
Mattapan	Boston	1.69
West Roxbury	Boston	1.708
Roxbury	Boston	1.726
Roslindale	Boston	1.762
Hyde Park	Boston	1.78
North Dorchester	Boston	1.878
East Boston	Boston	2.038
West Cambridge	Cambridge	2.11
Jamaica Plain	Boston	2.128
Mission Hill	Boston	2.22
North Cambridge	Cambridge	2.22
Aggasiz - Harvard North	Cambridge	2.27
The Port - Area 4	Cambridge	2.388
Cambridgeport	Cambridge	2.502
Wellington-Harrington	Cambridge	2.524
Peabody	Cambridge	2.546
Brighton	Boston	2.652
Riverside	Cambridge	2.654
Charlestown	Boston	2.666
South Boston	Boston	2.684
Allston	Boston	2.702
Mid-Cambridge	Cambridge	2.868
East Cambridge	Cambridge	2.918
West End	Boston	3.094
Downtown	Boston	3.258
South End	Boston	3.276
North End	Boston	3.462
Back Bay	Boston	3.512
Chinatown	Boston	3.622
Kenmore	Boston	3.658
Beacon Hill	Boston	3.726
Fenway	Boston	4.144

I hope that this is more useful than the BostInno presentation.