I'm renting in Newton, 2 Bedroom, $1950/month. It's a bit of a unicorn, but there are good apartments out there.

I'm not sure if others have mentioned it, but pretty much all rentals go through brokers in MA, and they charge one month's rent. There are a bunch of threads on Reddit you can check out that talk about it. It's definitely annoying, and seems to be unique to the area, but I just wanted you to have a heads up before you wade into the water and think they're all scamming you. They kind of are, but there's really no way around it. I've lived in six apartments in greater Boston and I paid a broker for all of them.

Also, apartments go really fast, especially for the September season. When I'm hunting I go to look at apartments ready to put in an application on the spot, checking with the broker beforehand about any documents I need. A lot of times apartments will be off the market within a day or two of being listed. So acting with urgency when something checks all the boxes is key.