What does affordability for all mean, and how will we know whether we are achieving it?
360citi compares policy promises with measurable outcomes: homes permitted, homes completed, where they were built, homes removed, who qualifies by income, how much of it is affordable, and the bedroom mix of what gets built.
What Cambridge permitted and completed, where, how much of it is affordable, and three questions the published record cannot answer.
7 of 8 measures published
14,332 homes, net, 1996–2025
Homes permitted, of All 1158 dated housing-permit records, 1996–2025
Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Housing Permits 1996 - Present · City of Cambridge · grouped by permit year and by neighbourhood; totals only · recorded August 26, 2026
4,040 homes, 2019–2025
Homes completed, of All 1,553 certificates of occupancy on record
Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Certificates of Occupancy · City of Cambridge, Inspectional Services · grouped by issue year, certificate type and temporary flag · recorded October 10, 2026
13 neighbourhoods, ranked
Neighborhood distribution, of 14,332 homes net across all neighbourhoods, 1996–2025
Calculated— show source
The formula uses identified inputs and the method is reproducible.
Method: ranking of the published per-neighbourhood sums; the sums themselves are the City's figures
Housing Permits 1996 - Present · City of Cambridge · grouped by permit year and by neighbourhood; totals only · recorded August 26, 2026
1,084 homes removed
Homes removed, of 22,249 homes permitted over the same period
Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Housing Permits 1996 - Present · City of Cambridge · grouped by permit year and by neighbourhood; totals only · recorded August 26, 2026
12.8%, 67 set-aside projects
Affordable homes in the development record, of 7,750 homes across 67 set-aside projects, 2011–2025
Calculated— show source
The formula uses identified inputs and the method is reproducible.
Method: affordable homes divided by all homes, over the projects publishing both counts
Development Log — current edition and historical additional details · City of Cambridge · grouped on unit counts; blanks counted, never read as zero · recorded July 30, 2026
3+ bedrooms: 5% to 16%
Bedroom mix, of 842 homes approved under the prior ordinance and 49 under the revised one
Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
2018 Inclusionary Housing Report · Cambridge Community Development Department · Figure 5, page 8 · recorded June 30, 2018 · verified August 21, 2026
Two questions that look like one
How many affordable homes get built, and what share of new housing is affordable, are different questions, and only the first can be answered from what Cambridge publishes. Two thirds of current projects record no affordable-home count at all, and a blank may mean none or may mean unrecorded. Every figure on this page therefore carries the number of projects it is computed over, and the number left out.
The requirement is 20 per cent of dwelling unit net floor area, for building permits issued after 2017-06-30. Every affordability figure the City publishes is a count of homes. Affordable homes are typically smaller than market ones, so a share of floor area and a share of homes are different quantities, and neither sets a bound on the other. Floor area is not published for each project, so this page states both in their own terms and does not divide one by the other.
Neighborhood distribution
homes · 13 neighbourhoods, ranked highest first
| neighbourhood | homes |
|---|---|
| 1 - East Cambridge | 5,954 |
| 11 - North Cambridge | 3,084 |
| 12 - Cambridge Highlands | 1,504 |
| 5 - Cambridgeport | 1,046 |
| 2 - Area 2/MIT | 897 |
| 4 - The Port | 590 |
| 9 - Neighborhood Nine | 563 |
| 7 - Riverside | 553 |
| 3 - Wellington-Harrington | 156 |
| 8 - Baldwin | 145 |
| 6 - Mid-Cambridge | 103 |
| 13 - Strawberry Hill | 39 |
| 10 - West Cambridge | -26 |
Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Housing Permits 1996 - Present · City of Cambridge · grouped by permit year and by neighbourhood; totals only · recorded August 26, 2026
Homes permitted
All 1158 dated housing-permit records, 1996–2025
14,332 homes, net, 1996–2025
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Housing Permits 1996 - Present · City of Cambridge · grouped by permit year and by neighbourhood; totals only · recorded August 26, 2026
Homes permitted — 10 rows
homes · 10 years, in the order published
Homes permitted — homes, by year year homes 2016 831 2017 795 2018 907 2019 936 2020 491 2021 437 2022 413 2023 109 2024 558 2025 62 Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Housing Permits 1996 - Present · City of Cambridge · grouped by permit year and by neighbourhood; totals only · recorded August 26, 2026
Homes completed
All 1,553 certificates of occupancy on record
4,040 homes, 2019–2025
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Certificates of Occupancy · City of Cambridge, Inspectional Services · grouped by issue year, certificate type and temporary flag · recorded October 10, 2026
Homes completed — 8 rows
homes · 8 years, in the order published
Homes completed — homes, by year year homes 2019 170 2020 748 2021 501 2022 816 2023 190 2024 181 2025 1,434 Occupied under a temporary certificate 1,068 Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Certificates of Occupancy · City of Cambridge, Inspectional Services · grouped by issue year, certificate type and temporary flag · recorded October 10, 2026
Neighborhood distribution
14,332 homes net across all neighbourhoods, 1996–2025
13 neighbourhoods, ranked
CalculatedSource
The formula uses identified inputs and the method is reproducible.
Method: ranking of the published per-neighbourhood sums; the sums themselves are the City's figures
Housing Permits 1996 - Present · City of Cambridge · grouped by permit year and by neighbourhood; totals only · recorded August 26, 2026
Neighborhood distribution — 13 rows
homes · 13 neighbourhoods, ranked highest first
Neighborhood distribution — homes, by neighbourhood neighbourhood homes 1 - East Cambridge 5,954 11 - North Cambridge 3,084 12 - Cambridge Highlands 1,504 5 - Cambridgeport 1,046 2 - Area 2/MIT 897 4 - The Port 590 9 - Neighborhood Nine 563 7 - Riverside 553 3 - Wellington-Harrington 156 8 - Baldwin 145 6 - Mid-Cambridge 103 13 - Strawberry Hill 39 10 - West Cambridge -26 Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Housing Permits 1996 - Present · City of Cambridge · grouped by permit year and by neighbourhood; totals only · recorded August 26, 2026
Income eligibility
Per one household, at one point on the area median income scale
Six tiers, 50%–120% of area median income
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Income limits, as shown on the TRUE Affordability tracker · City of Cambridge and US HUD · income eligibility ladder · verified August 21, 2026
Homes removed
22,249 homes permitted over the same period
1,084 homes removed
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Housing Permits 1996 - Present · City of Cambridge · grouped by permit year and by neighbourhood; totals only · recorded August 26, 2026
Homes removed — 10 rows
homes · 10 years, in the order published
Homes removed — homes, by year year homes 2016 21 2017 25 2018 37 2019 61 2020 27 2021 238 2022 40 2023 218 2024 42 2025 92 Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Housing Permits 1996 - Present · City of Cambridge · grouped by permit year and by neighbourhood; totals only · recorded August 26, 2026
Affordable homes in the development record
7,750 homes across 67 set-aside projects, 2011–2025
12.8%, 67 set-aside projects
CalculatedSource
The formula uses identified inputs and the method is reproducible.
Method: affordable homes divided by all homes, over the projects publishing both counts
Development Log — current edition and historical additional details · City of Cambridge · grouped on unit counts; blanks counted, never read as zero · recorded July 30, 2026
Affordable homes in the development record — 5 rows
- What the ordinance requires20% of Dwelling Unit Net Floor Area, for building permits issued after 2017-06-30 — raised from 15%
- Set-aside projects completed 2011–202512.8% — 995 affordable of 7,750 homes, 67 projects
- Set-aside projects in the current pipeline20.5% — 171 affordable of 833 homes, 12 projects
- Dedicated affordable developments, 2011–2025664 affordable of 664 homes, across 18 projects
- Projects publishing no affordable count91 of 176 historical, 48 of 75 current
Bedroom mix
842 homes approved under the prior ordinance and 49 under the revised one
3+ bedrooms: 5% to 16%
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
2018 Inclusionary Housing Report · Cambridge Community Development Department · Figure 5, page 8 · recorded June 30, 2018 · verified August 21, 2026
Bedroom mix — 2 rows
- Under the prior ordinanceStudio 16% · 1 bed 45% · 2 bed 34% · 3+ bed 5% (842 homes)
- Under the revised ordinanceStudio 12% · 1 bed 43% · 2 bed 29% · 3+ bed 16% (49 homes)
Affordability periods
Per one affordable home, from the date its restriction begins
No figure published. The record it would come from is named below.
MissingSource
An expected field is unavailable. The attempted source and last check are shown.
Looked for: City of Cambridge — inclusionary housing deed restrictions and regulatory agreements, not published as data · last checked August 21, 2026
How these are measured
No addresses or names were collected
Every figure here comes from a query grouped on the City's servers, so a year, a neighbourhood name and a tally are all that was received. All five feeds carry street addresses and the Development Log also carries developer names; none of it was requested, so 360citi has never held it.
Why no figure here is compared to 20%
The inclusionary requirement is 20% of Dwelling Unit Net Floor Area. Every feed that publishes affordability publishes counts of homes. Affordable homes are typically smaller than market ones, so a share of floor area and a share of homes are different measures, and one does not tell you the other. Floor area is not published for each project, so this record cannot make the comparison.
Why the affordable share is never one number
Among projects publishing both counts, one group clusters between 10% and 19% affordable and another sits at 100%. The first is a share required of market-rate development; the second is development that is entirely affordable by design, built with different money. Their blend is roughly 20%, a figure that describes no project in the record.
Why blanks are counted rather than filled in
139 projects across the two editions publish no affordable-home count. Reading a blank as zero would understate the share; reading only the projects that report it overstates it, because a project whose purpose is affordable housing is likelier to record it. Both readings are wrong, so the exclusions are published alongside every figure they affect.
Why permitted and completed are never subtracted
Homes permitted runs from 1996. Homes completed begins in 2019, because that is when the certificate-of-occupancy record begins. The difference between the two totals is made almost entirely of the twenty-three years the second series does not cover, so it is not a measure of homes that failed to get built.
What this record does not establish
- Nothing here establishes whether any project met its inclusionary obligation. The obligation is expressed in floor area and the published record is expressed in homes.
- Homes removed is not displacement. It counts dwellings that stopped existing, and says nothing about who lived in them or where they went.
- The bedroom mix is from 2018 and covers 49 homes under the revised ordinance. It is the most recent measurement the City has published.
- How long an affordable home must remain affordable is not published in any form this record could compute from.
What you can do about it
Read the record for your own neighbourhood
The thirteen neighbourhood figures are the City's own, grouped as published. If the figure for yours does not match what you have watched get built, that gap is worth raising — with the figure and its source in hand.
Ask what a blank affordable-home count means
Nearly two thirds of current projects leave the field empty. Knowing whether a blank means none or simply unrecorded would improve this measure more than anything else, and the Community Development Department can answer it.
Ask for the inclusionary figures in the ordinance's own units
The requirement is set in floor area and the record is published in homes. Publishing affordable floor area per project would make compliance checkable by anyone, from data the City already holds.
Every source behind these figures
- Housing Permits 1996 - Present · City of Cambridge · grouped by permit year and by neighbourhood; totals only
- Certificates of Occupancy · City of Cambridge, Inspectional Services · grouped by issue year, certificate type and temporary flag
- Development Log — current edition and historical additional details · City of Cambridge · grouped on unit counts; blanks counted, never read as zero
- 2018 Inclusionary Housing Report · Cambridge Community Development Department · Figure 5, page 8
- Inclusionary Housing Zoning Amendment, Ordinance #1392 · City of Cambridge · 20% of Dwelling Unit Net Floor Area, permits issued after 2017-06-30
The other account of the same city
The Development Log counts homes in large tracked projects and is republished each quarter. This page counts homes in the permit record, which covers every housing permit since 1996. The two do not agree, and neither is wrong: they count different things. Both are shown here so you can see the difference for yourself.
Read the development recordWho qualifies, by incomeEvery source behind these figures
