SALEM — It's no secret that apartments are scarce and rents are up on the North Shore, but what makes the region attractive, some say, has to do with sky-high rents in Boston.

Turns out, Boston is the fifth-most expensive city in the nation for renters, with two-bedroom apartments averaging $2,900 a month, according to Apartment List, an online national marketplace that lists hundreds of thousands of apartments for rent.

And those skyrocketing Boston rents have made Salem, just a short train ride away, attractive to apartment seekers. 

"You have a ton of young professionals coming out of Boston," said Virginia Carson, the rental manager for Tache Real Estate in Salem.

That is contributing, she said, to a major shortage of apartments in Salem, and as a result, rents are through the roof. Already, she said, renters in Salem tend to stay put. And the city has lost some of its apartment stock to condominium conversions, all factors that have helped create the apartment shortage.

Data from the Multiple Listing Service shows average rents for two-bedroom apartments are up in five of seven North Shore communities and essentially flat in Salem in the past 12 months, compared with the same 12-month period one year ago.

Two-bedrooms range from an average of $1,553 per month in Peabody to $2,054 per month in Marblehead, according to the MLS, a real estate advertising service company.

Beverly saw the largest year-over-year gain in rents for two-bedroom apartments. The average rent in the Garden City over the past year is $1,773, up more than 20 percent over a year ago.

The MLS, however, captures only a fraction of the rental market because many apartments are listed privately by owners, oftentimes on websites such as Craigslist.

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