AvalonBay rents one bedroom apartments at 290 Mishawum Road two different ways. On its 80 percent program page, a one bedroom at Avalon Woburn is $2,179 a month. On the open availability board the same week, the cheapest one bedroom in the building is $2,710. Same address, same company, $531 a month between them.
The catch is printed right next to the cheaper number. To hold that $2,179 apartment, a one person household has to earn at least $52,296 and no more than $92,650. That is a range with a top on it. Read that twice, because it means something unusual is true where you live. A raise can cost you money.
What the Ceiling Costs When You Cross It
Put the two boards side by side and the spread is not small. The restricted one bedroom is $2,179 and the cheapest market one bedroom is $2,710, a gap of $6,372 a year. The restricted two bedroom is $2,709 against a market floor of $3,135, another $5,112 a year. The three bedroom is the one that stings. It runs $2,997 restricted and $4,320 on the open board, a difference of $1,323 every month, which is $15,876 a year.
So a family in the restricted three bedroom who works their way past the income limit doesn’t get a slightly worse deal. They get a sixteen thousand dollar annual raise in their housing cost, in the same building, for the same apartment.
One more number, built only from AvalonBay’s own published figures. The income ceiling on the restricted one bedroom is $92,650. The cheapest market one bedroom runs $32,520 a year. A household sitting right at that ceiling, pushed onto the open board, would be spending roughly 35 percent of gross income on the least expensive one bedroom Avalon Woburn has.
What to do with that. If you’re in a restricted home here, find out exactly where your household sits against the limit for your size, and find out before your next review or bonus rather than after. It is also the single most useful number to bring a mortgage broker, because the same limit drives the buy-side question.
The Price Board Stopped Paying You for Space
Something has come loose in the market pricing at this property. On the September board, a 957 square foot one bedroom listed at $3,075 while a 1,048 square foot two bedroom listed at $3,135. An extra bedroom and 91 extra square feet, for $60 a month.
It gets stranger further up. An 851 square foot one bedroom was $3,390, and a 1,134 square foot two bedroom was $3,345. The smaller apartment, short by 283 square feet and a whole bedroom, cost $45 more. A 901 square foot one bedroom at $3,395 was priced above every two bedroom in the building.
None of it is a mistake. Large owners price each apartment for each calendar slot, the way an airline prices a seat, and the board reshuffles as homes fill. What it tells a renter is worth naming plainly. You’re not buying space here. You’re buying a slot in somebody’s occupancy calendar, and the slot gets repriced every time your lease ends.
What to do with that. Before you renew anything, price every plan in the building that fits your household, not only the one you are in. Then compare the best of those to a purchase payment. A comparison built against the smallest apartment you’ve ever rented is the reason most renters conclude buying is out of reach.
Mishawum Road, and the Closed Station It Is Named For
Mishawum Road takes its name from Mishawum station on the MBTA’s Lowell Line. That station has been closed since December 14, 2020, and it’s still closed; Woburn’s legislative delegation has been asking for its return for years without a restoration date.
The working station is Anderson/Woburn, at the Anderson Regional Transportation Center on Atlantic Avenue, which Massport opened in 2001. It carries the Lowell Line into North Station, Amtrak’s Downeaster north toward Portland, and the Logan Express bus to the airport. That’s a strong transportation position, and it belongs to the city rather than to any one lease.
Worth holding onto, because it applies to the buy side too. The commute you like about this location is a Woburn asset. It stays available to you at an address you own in the same city, and it is one of the reasons a house in Woburn is usually a better comparison for an Avalon Woburn renter than a house two towns out.
What to do with that. Draw your real commute, then ask which Woburn neighborhoods keep it. We work with Woburn buyers regularly and can tell you what a payment reaches in each of them.
Where Your Rent Owns Something
Woburn’s median single-family sale price has settled at about $775,000, holding roughly flat through the spring of 2026 after peaking near $797,000 in early 2025. That’s the first sustained pause in the town’s prices since 2018, and pauses are the part of a cycle that favors a prepared buyer.
Woburn also carries the lowest property tax rate of any town in our own verified table, $9.15 per $1,000 for FY2026. On a $775,000 house that’s about $7,091 a year, roughly $591 a month, against $12,000 or more a year for the same price in several towns nearby. When a renter compares a mortgage payment to rent and forgets the tax line, they usually assume the worst. In Woburn the tax line is the friendliest part of the page.
Then set it against what you are already paying. A three bedroom on the open board here is $4,320 a month, which is $51,840 a year going out with nothing recorded in your name at the end of it. Houses in Woburn have been going under agreement in under three weeks, so the buyer who wins is the one who arrived with financing sorted rather than the one who started calling after the open house.
What to do with that. Bring three numbers to a conversation: your current rent, what you have saved, and your monthly debts. Ask what payment that supports in Woburn once taxes and insurance are counted. The rent-versus-buy question gets much smaller once real numbers replace the guesses.
A Mortgage Has a Limit, Not a Ceiling
Here’s the difference that matters most if you’re in one of the restricted homes. Mortgage underwriting measures the payment against your income, so it sets a debt-to-income limit. There’s no cap on how much you’re allowed to earn. Every raise makes your file stronger, and it keeps doing that for as long as you own the house.
The state’s first-time buyer programs are the one exception worth knowing about, because several of them do carry household income limits, and the MassHousing options are worth checking against your own number before anything changes. That cuts a specific way for anyone sitting just under the Avalon ceiling. The same income that makes you eligible for the restricted apartment usually also puts you inside the programs’ limits, and those limits work the same way the apartment’s do. They reward looking now rather than later.
What to do with that. Ask for a free pre-qualification while your income is where it is. It costs nothing, it commits you to nothing, and it tells you if the programs are open to you at today’s number. That’s a far better use of a Saturday than finding out next year that two doors closed at once.
Where We Come In
GoldCoast Mortgage Service is an independent mortgage broker in Beverly, up Route 128 from Woburn. John Donlon, who owns the company, has spent more than 25 years financing homes for families across the North Shore and the communities inside 128. Plenty of them started in a lease that looked a lot like yours. A bank offers you the loans that bank happens to sell. A broker prices your file across many lenders and shows you what comes back.
We’ll pre-qualify you at no cost and with no pressure attached. You might learn that a house in Woburn is closer than you thought. You might learn that another year at Avalon, with the renewal negotiated properly, is the smarter move. If renting still wins for your household, we’ll say so, and the towns we cover are on our service areas page.
Recommended Realtors for First-Time Buyers
We work regularly with two local agents who are good with first-time buyers and who won’t rush you:
- Arthur Martiroso, DNA Realty Group, 617-921-5015
- Joshua Riopelle, Simes City Realty, North Andover, 978-590-2741
You’re welcome to work with any agent you like. We mention them because renters often ask us who to call once the financing side makes sense.
Questions From Renters at Avalon Woburn
Why are there two different rents for a one bedroom at Avalon Woburn?
AvalonBay runs an income-restricted 80 percent program at this property alongside its market apartments. The program one bedroom is published at $2,179 a month and the cheapest market one bedroom was $2,710, a difference of $531. The restricted homes carry household income ranges with both a floor and a ceiling, and the waitlist application is on AvalonBay’s own Avalon Woburn affordable program page.
Can I lose my apartment for earning too much?
An income-restricted home has a published upper limit for each household size. For a one person household in the one bedroom at Avalon Woburn that limit is $92,650. Crossing it doesn’t put you out on the street, but it does mean the restricted rent stops applying, and the cheapest market one bedroom in the same building costs $6,372 more a year. Ask the leasing office exactly how your household is measured and when.
Does a mortgage have an income limit too?
Ordinary mortgage financing doesn’t. Underwriting sets a debt-to-income limit, which caps the payment relative to what you earn, so earning more only ever helps. Some Massachusetts first-time buyer programs do carry household income limits, which is the reason to price a purchase while your income is where it is rather than after it moves.
Why does a one bedroom here sometimes cost more than a two bedroom?
Because each apartment is priced for its own availability date rather than by size. On the September board a 957 square foot one bedroom was $3,075 while a 1,048 square foot two bedroom was $3,135, and an 851 square foot one bedroom at $3,390 was priced above a 1,134 square foot two bedroom at $3,345. Price every plan that fits your household before you renew, including the ones you have not toured.
Can I buy in Woburn for something like what I pay here?
Woburn’s median single-family price is around $775,000 and has been roughly flat since early 2025, and the town’s FY2026 residential tax rate of $9.15 per $1,000 is the lowest in our verified table, about $591 a month at that price. A payment built on a two or three bedroom rent at Avalon Woburn reaches further in this town than most renters expect. A free pre-qualification turns that into a real number in about twenty minutes.
How much do I need for a down payment?
Less than most renters assume. FHA financing allows 3.5 percent down with a 580 credit score. Massachusetts programs go further for eligible buyers, including MassHousing options and the ONE Mortgage program, which pairs a low down payment with no private mortgage insurance. Renters at other Avalon communities on the North Shore run into the same surprise.