TRUE Multifamily Living Across Generations
Whether a home works for the household living in it: size, privacy, access, stability and the daily needs around it.
26 of 45 measures connected
58,966
Total dwelling units — City inventory
Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "58,966 total units, of which 9,021 (15.3%) are affordable" — CDD inventory as of June 30, 2025 · verified August 17, 2026
57,127
Total housing units — American Community Survey one-year estimate
Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "2024 ACS 1-year housing unit estimate: 57,127" · verified August 17, 2026
56,684
Total housing units — Census Address Count Listing Files
Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "November 2025 Address Count Listing Files housing unit count: 56,684" · verified August 17, 2026
54,840
Total housing units — American Community Survey five-year estimate
Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "2020–2024 ACS 5-year housing unit estimate: 54,840" · verified August 17, 2026
53,907
Total housing units — 2020 decennial census
Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "2020 decennial census housing unit count: 53,907" · verified August 17, 2026
9,021
Income-restricted units in the City inventory
Fact— show source
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "58,966 total units, of which 9,021 (15.3%) are affordable" — CDD inventory as of June 30, 2025 · verified August 17, 2026
Why it matters
A unit count says how many homes were built. It does not say whether they fit the households that need them — an older resident, a family with children and a shared household need different things from the same floor area.
Scope
Cost, right-sized space, privacy and connection, accessibility, stability, care, daily needs and resilience by household pattern.
How it is measured
Assessed by household pattern rather than by unit. Bedroom mix, accessibility features and distance to daily needs are recorded separately, because averaging them produces a number that describes nobody.
Measures
This tracker asks whether a home works for the household living in it — enough space, privacy, a step-free way in, stability, room for care, daily needs nearby and resilience — rather than only how many homes were built. Cambridge publishes the rules and the unit totals and publishes nothing that measures fit, so all eight fit dimensions are shown as unknown with the office that would supply each one named, and what is shown instead is the offer: the rules as the City states them, and every published count of how many homes exist.
Published · 26
These carry a figure from an official record, with the source and the arithmetic that produced it.
The eight dimensions of fit
The occupancy standard behind right-sized space — an assumption, not a measurement
Bedrooms required by the chosen standard for a given household compositionEach figure describes one household composition — This is a rule input, not a rate. There is nothing to be a share of.How this is measured
bedrooms per household composition · Occupancy standards disagree with each other by design. Any published standard is one defensible choice among several, so this value is a labelled assumption and is excluded from every factual total by construction.
No occupancy standard has been selected. Until one is named and cited, no household is described here as over-housed or under-housed.
ScenarioSource
Selected assumptions rather than a record of what happened. Excluded from factual totals.
Method: A scenario, because the requirement is a chosen input rather than an observation. scenario() carries no source and factualTotal() never counts it, so a crowding judgement built on this can never be summed, ranked or reported as a measurement.
What the rules allow today
Where multifamily housing is allowed
No denominator — A rule is not a share of anything. Expressing it as a proportion of districts would invite it to be read as a proportion of homes.
How this is measured
the rule, as the City department states it · This is the rule as summarised by the City department. The adopted ordinance text governs and supersedes the summary; the citation carries the department page, and the ordinance is the authority behind it.
all districts (except open space) are zoned to allow multifamily housing.
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Cambridge Zones for Multifamily Housing Citywide · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · City department summary of the two adopted zoning petitions · recorded February 10, 2025 · verified August 17, 2026
When the citywide multifamily zoning was adopted
No denominator — A dated event has no denominator.
How this is measured
a date, as the City states it · None material. The date of a Council vote is a matter of record, and the adopted ordinance carries the same date as the department's notice.
On February 10, 2025, The Cambridge City Council voted to adopt two zoning petitions to allow multifamily housing citywide.
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Cambridge Zones for Multifamily Housing Citywide · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · City department summary of the two adopted zoning petitions · recorded February 10, 2025 · verified August 17, 2026
Base residential height allowed
No denominator — A height limit is a rule value, not a share.
How this is measured
stories and feet, as the City states them · Applies to residential development under the citywide rules. District overlays set different limits and are not covered by this value, so a reader checking one address must check the overlay as well.
residential developments up to four stories (45 feet).
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Cambridge Zones for Multifamily Housing Citywide · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · City department summary of the two adopted zoning petitions · recorded February 10, 2025 · verified August 17, 2026
Height allowed with inclusionary units on a qualifying lot
No denominator — A conditional rule value is not a share of anything.
How this is measured
stories and feet, with both stated conditions · Both conditions are load-bearing. A rendering that showed six stories without the twenty-percent inclusionary condition and the five-thousand-square-foot lot condition would misstate the rule, which is why they are one string and not three fields.
six stories (74 feet) if: 20% of the residential units are inclusionary (income-restricted affordable housing) and the lot size is at least 5,000 square feet.
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Cambridge Zones for Multifamily Housing Citywide · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · City department summary of the two adopted zoning petitions · recorded February 10, 2025 · verified August 17, 2026
What the 2025 zoning removed
No denominator — A list of removed requirements is not a rate.
How this is measured
the rule statement, as the City states it · Stated by the City department as a summary of what the amendments do. The adopted ordinance text governs, and a reader relying on this for a specific lot should read the ordinance.
Remove some requirements that make it more difficult to build multifamily housing, such as minimum lot sizes, limits of the number of housing units, and on the amount of floor area.
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Cambridge Zones for Multifamily Housing Citywide · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · City department summary of the two adopted zoning petitions · recorded February 10, 2025 · verified August 17, 2026
The Inclusionary Housing requirement
Dwelling unit net floor area devoted to affordable unitsTotal residential floor area in the development — Floor area, not unit count. The height bonus in T04-R4 uses a percentage of UNITS for a different provision, and the two are never merged.How this is measured
percent of residential floor area · The basis is floor area and not unit count. A rendering that said twenty percent of units would misstate the ordinance, and would collide with the separate twenty-percent-of-units condition that governs the height bonus.
developments of ten or more units are required to allocate 20% of residential floor area for low- and moderate-income tenants
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Inclusionary Housing · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · Programme summary of the Inclusionary Housing ordinance, as amended April 2017 · verified August 17, 2026
The family-sized unit requirement in the affordable component
No denominator — The ordinance sets a threshold at which the requirement applies, not a proportion of anything.
How this is measured
the rule, with its floor-area threshold · How many three-bedroom units this rule has actually produced is a separate and unpublished quantity, and it is deliberately not inferred from the rule. See the completed-inclusionary-units measure, which stays missing.
In developments of 30,000 square feet or larger, the ordinance requires the creation of three-bedroom units in the affordable component.
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Inclusionary Housing · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · Programme summary of the Inclusionary Housing ordinance, as amended April 2017 · verified August 17, 2026
How the cost of an inclusionary unit is set
Monthly housing cost for an inclusionary unitThe household's income — This is the programme's pricing rule for inclusionary units only. It is not an affordability threshold for housing in the city generally, and the cost-fit dimension deliberately does not use it as one.How this is measured
percent of household income · Applies to the inclusionary programme's own units. Reading it as the city's affordability standard is the most common misreading of this rule, and the cost-fit dimension is built on a needs budget precisely to avoid it.
Monthly costs for affordable units are set at 30% of household income.
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Inclusionary Housing · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · Programme summary of the Inclusionary Housing ordinance, as amended April 2017 · verified August 17, 2026
How many homes there are, and which count you are reading
Total dwelling units — City inventory
No denominator — A count of the whole city is not a share of anything larger. Dividing it into another of the six counts would compare two different universes.
How this is measured
dwelling units · The universe differs from every Census count, and the City says so itself. Restated annually as of 30 June, so the figure moves once a year for reasons that are not development.
58966
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "58,966 total units, of which 9,021 (15.3%) are affordable" — CDD inventory as of June 30, 2025 · verified August 17, 2026
Total housing units — American Community Survey one-year estimate
No denominator — A citywide estimate is not a share of anything larger.
How this is measured
housing units · A survey estimate built from one year of sample, so its margin of error is larger than the five-year estimate over the same place — and the City page prints neither margin. It may be displayed; it may not be divided into until the margin is attached from Census table B25001.
57127
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "2024 ACS 1-year housing unit estimate: 57,127" · verified August 17, 2026
Total housing units — Census Address Count Listing Files
No denominator — A citywide count is not a share of anything larger.
How this is measured
housing units · An address-frame count and not an occupancy survey. It counts addresses the Bureau holds, which is a different universe from both the City inventory and the survey estimates.
56684
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "November 2025 Address Count Listing Files housing unit count: 56,684" · verified August 17, 2026
Total housing units — American Community Survey five-year estimate
No denominator — A citywide estimate is not a share of anything larger.
How this is measured
housing units · A survey estimate with a margin of error that the City page does not print. It may be displayed; it may not be divided into until the margin is attached from Census table B25001, because a rate over an estimate without its error is false precision.
54840
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "2020–2024 ACS 5-year housing unit estimate: 54,840" · verified August 17, 2026
Total housing units — 2020 decennial census
No denominator — A citywide count is not a share of anything larger.
How this is measured
housing units · A 2020 count being read in 2026. It is the oldest of the six universes and is used only where a 2020 baseline is what is actually wanted.
53907
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "2020 decennial census housing unit count: 53,907" · verified August 17, 2026
The City's own statement that these counts are not comparable
No denominator — A methodological statement is not a quantity and has nothing to be measured against.
How this is measured
the statement, as the City publishes it · None material. This is the caveat that governs every rate on this page, and it is the City's own wording rather than a paraphrase of it.
The CDD inventory is not comparable to the U.S. Census Bureau counts because the CDD inventory includes apartment-style graduate student housing and permitted units under construction that are excluded by census counts.
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · Housing unit and household count answers · verified August 17, 2026
1 rows · Fact
- The same caveat on the City's housing data pageThe Cambridge inventory is not comparable to Census Bureau housing statistics
Income-restricted units in the City inventory
No denominator — Reported here as a count. The share it forms is a separate, calculated measure with its denominator named on its face.
How this is measured
dwelling units · As of 30 June 2025, and affordable as the City's own inventory defines it. That definition travels with the figure, because affordable is not one thing across programmes.
9021
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "58,966 total units, of which 9,021 (15.3%) are affordable" — CDD inventory as of June 30, 2025 · verified August 17, 2026
Share of the City inventory that is income-restricted
9,021 income-restricted units in the City inventory58,966 total units in the City inventory as of 30 June 2025 — Explicitly this universe. Substituting any of the other five unit universes changes the answer, which is why the denominator is named in the formula rather than assumed.How this is measured
percent of dwelling units · The quotient does not terminate, so the printed figure is rounded and is not exact. Both terms come from the same City inventory as of the same date; substituting any other unit universe changes the answer materially.
15.2986%
CalculatedSource
The formula uses identified inputs and the method is reproducible.
Method: 9,021 income-restricted units ÷ 58,966 total units in the City inventory as of 30 June 2025 = 0.1529864…, rounded to 15.2986%.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · Housing unit and household count answers · verified August 17, 2026
Share of dwelling units that are condominiums
Condominium dwelling unitsCitywide dwelling units in the City land use database — A sixth universe again, distinct from the June inventory and from all four Census counts. The underlying counts are not published.How this is measured
percent of dwelling units · As of 31 December 2025, from the City land use database. Because the underlying counts are not published, this share is quotable but cannot be moved onto any other unit universe.
27.6%
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "Percentage of citywide dwelling units that are condominiums: 27.6%" — CDD land use database as of December 31, 2025 · verified August 17, 2026
Share of dwelling units in mixed-use buildings
Dwelling units in mixed-use buildingsCitywide dwelling units in the City land use database — Same universe and same caveat as the condominium share; the underlying counts are not published.How this is measured
percent of dwelling units · As of 31 December 2025. The underlying counts are not published, so the share is quotable but not re-basable onto another unit universe.
14.5%
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Demographics and Statistics FAQ · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · "Percentage of citywide dwelling units that are in mixed use buildings: 14.5%" · verified August 17, 2026
What the public property record holds
Home attributes the City's property record does contain
No denominator — A list of column names is not a rate. What matters is which attributes exist, not what proportion of the schema they form.
How this is measured
named columns, rendered from the retrieved schema · The schema as retrieved for the FY2026 extract on the read date. Field presence is not field completeness: a column can exist and be blank for most rows, so any figure built from these must publish its non-null rate alongside it.
propertyclass, zoning, exterior_style, exterior_occupancy, exterior_numstories, exterior_walltype, exterior_wallheight, exterior_rooftype, exterior_roofmaterial, exterior_floorlocation, exterior_view, interior_livingarea, interior_numunits, interior_totalrooms, interior_bedrooms, interior_kitchens, interior_fullbaths, interior_halfbaths, interior_fireplaces, interior_flooring, interior_layout, interior_laundryinunit, systems_heattype, systems_heatfuel, systems_centralair, systems_plumbing, condition_yearbuilt, condition_interiorcondition, condition_overallcondition, condition_overallgrade, parking_open, parking_covered, parking_garage
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Cambridge Property Database FY2026 — published column schema · City of Cambridge Assessing Department · columns[].fieldName, 63 columns as retrieved · verified August 17, 2026
Accessibility attributes in the City's property record
Columns whose name refers to accessibility, a step-free route, an elevator or any accessibility classificationEvery column published in the FY2026 schema as retrieved — Counted from the published schema itself, not from the dataset's summary page.How this is measured
columns · Both terms are computed from the column list retrieved on the read date, so the figure is exact over that retrieval. A column added upstream would change the denominator, which is why the retrieval date travels with it.
0 of 63 columns
CalculatedSource
The formula uses identified inputs and the method is reproducible.
Method: Counted over the stored column list retrieved from the published schema on the read date: columns whose name matches any accessibility term, over all columns retrieved.
Cambridge Property Database FY2026 — published column schema · City of Cambridge Assessing Department · columns[].fieldName, 63 columns as retrieved · verified August 17, 2026
Stages that are never added together
Units legally possible under the 2025 citywide zoning
No denominator — A capacity is never a share. Expressing it against any unit universe would invite it to be read as a proportion of homes that exist.
How this is measured
dwelling units, modelled · Fully assumption-dependent: unit size, lot eligibility, ownership intent and market behaviour are all chosen rather than observed. It is not a forecast, not a plan, and not a prediction of anything.
Not computed. No assumption set has been fixed for Cambridge, so no capacity figure is stated.
ScenarioSource
Selected assumptions rather than a record of what happened. Excluded from factual totals.
Method: A scenario by construction. Capacity is a modelled maximum under chosen assumptions; scenario() carries no source and is excluded from factualTotal(), so a capacity figure can never reach a proposed-unit total even by accident.
Inclusionary units completed, as distinct from under construction
No denominator — A stage count is not a share of anything.
How this is measured
dwelling units · The City publishes a figure that merges completed units with units under construction and carries no date. That sentence is quotable, but it is not usable as a completed-unit count, so this measure waits for the split rather than borrowing the merged figure.
MissingSource
An expected field is unavailable. The attempted source and last check are shown.
Looked for: City of Cambridge Community Development Department, Housing Division, for the split between inclusionary units completed and inclusionary units under construction, and for the date the figure applies to. · last checked August 17, 2026
1 rows · Fact
- What the City does publish, and why it is not used hereover 1,100 units of affordable rental and ownership housing have been completed or are under construction in new developments
Households, and the patterns they take
How many households there are, and which count you are reading
No denominator — Two counts of the same city under different universes. Neither is a share of the other and dividing one into the other compares two vintages.
How this is measured
households · One count and one survey estimate. The estimate's margin of error is not printed on the City page, so it is recorded as a non-divisible universe and every household rate in this module is taken over the decennial count instead.
- 2020 decennial census household count49,564
- 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year household count estimate49,444
The published household taxonomy the patterns are anchored to
No denominator — A taxonomy is a list of categories, not a quantity that can be shared out.
How this is measured
category labels, verbatim from the published table group · The taxonomy as published in the five-year table group retrieved on the read date. Category wording changes between vintages, so the vintage travels with the anchor rather than being assumed stable.
Family households: Married-couple family; Other family: Male householder, no spouse present; Other family: Female householder, no spouse present. Nonfamily households: Householder living alone; Householder not living alone.
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
American Community Survey table group B11001 — Household Type (Including Living Alone) · United States Census Bureau · variables[].label, B11001_001E to B11001_009E · verified August 17, 2026
2 rows · Fact
- The presence categories the age bands come fromHouseholds with one or more people under 18 years; households with no people under 18 years. Households with one or more people 60 years and over; households with no people 60 years and over.
- The bedroom bands a right-sized-space measure would useNo bedroom; 1 bedroom; 2 bedrooms; 3 bedrooms; 4 bedrooms; 5 or more bedrooms.
The published household configurations the cost dimension would use
No denominator — A list of configurations is not a rate.
How this is measured
configuration headings, verbatim · The calculator publishes configurations by number of adults, by how many of them work, and by number of children. It carries no age dimension, so one household pattern here has no configuration at all and that absence is recorded rather than filled.
1 Adult; 2 Adults (1 Working); 2 Adults (Both Working) — each with 0, 1, 2 or 3 children.
FactSource
Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.
Living Wage Calculator — Middlesex County, Massachusetts · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Household configuration column headings · verified August 17, 2026
Not published · 19
These name the record that would answer them and, where we have looked, when we last checked. Several are not merely unconnected but impossible to compute from anything published today; the measure says which.
The eight dimensions of fit
- Cost fit — housing cost that leaves enough for the rest of livingMissing
- Right-sized space — bedrooms against what the household needsMissing
- Privacy and connection — a sleeping space with a door, and shared space to be together inMissing
- Accessibility — homes a person can get into and useMissing
- Stability — whether a household can expect to still be there next yearMissing
- Care — room for the care a household gives or receivesMissing
- Daily needs — how far the home is from what a household uses every weekMissing
- Resilience — whether the home stays liveable in heat, storm and outageMissing
Accessible and flexible home patterns
- Single-level living — a sleeping space and a full bathroom on the entry levelMissing
- Lawful accessory dwelling units — a second home inside the same propertyMissing
- Homes that lawfully changed shape — units subdivided or combinedMissing
Stages that are never added together
- Dwelling units in applications filedMissing
- Dwelling units permitted or under constructionMissing
- Dwelling units completedMissing
- Public and private housing project portfolioMissing
Households, and the patterns they take
- Households matching each household pattern
Neighborhood offer and gap
- Dwelling units by neighborhoodMissing
- Bedroom mix by neighborhoodMissing
- Accessible dwelling units by neighborhoodMissing
How these are measured
- The offer and the supply are two different questions
- The rules say what may be built. The counts say how many homes exist. Neither says whether a home fits the household living in it, and this tracker keeps the three apart on purpose: the rules are quoted, the counts are transcribed with their universes named, and fit is left empty until something published measures it.
- Every rate names the count it was taken over
- Six official universes exist for Cambridge dwelling units and two for households. Each measure here names the one it is counted against, and the two survey estimates and the land use database are recorded as universes a rate may not be taken over, because their margins of error are not published and their underlying counts are not printed. That rule is encoded, not stated: a calculated rate over one of them fails this module's own validator.
- Nothing is published below the neighborhood
- The City's property record carries an owner name, an owner address, a street address and coordinates. This tracker reads an allowlist of home attributes and drops every other column at the parser boundary, so a resident's name or address cannot reach a page even by accident, and a column added to the dataset later is dropped by default rather than admitted by default.
- A term from a regulation nobody could read is not used
- The state regulation covering accessible dwelling units could not be retrieved on the read date. Rather than borrow a classification term from it, the accessibility measures are defined in plain terms — a step-free route from the public way to the unit door, and an interior a wheelchair user can move through and use — and the responsible board is named as the office that will supply the standard.
- The household patterns are anchored, not invented
- Each pattern maps to a published household-type category and, where one exists, to a published cost configuration. One pattern has no cost configuration because the calculator carries no age dimension, and that absence is recorded rather than filled with the nearest match.
What you can do about it
Read the zoning change in the City's own words
The department's summary states what the two adopted petitions allow, and the height conditions that go with it. The adopted ordinance text governs where the two differ.
Received by: City of Cambridge Community Development Department
City of Cambridge — citywide multifamily zoningRead the inclusionary requirement, including the family-sized unit rule
The requirement is set as a share of residential floor area, and a separate rule requires three-bedroom units in the affordable component above a floor-area threshold.
Received by: City of Cambridge Community Development Department, Housing Division
City of Cambridge — Inclusionary HousingCheck which count a housing figure was taken over
Before comparing any two housing figures for Cambridge, check which of the published counts each one used. The City lists them together, with the dates they apply to.
Received by: City of Cambridge Community Development Department
City of Cambridge — demographics and statisticsAsk the office that holds a record this tracker is waiting on
Each gap below names the office that would supply it. A resident asking that office directly is how several of these figures will first become public.
Received by: The office named on the gap
City of Cambridge — housingSee every source this site relies on, and every gap it is waiting on
The source register is derived from the site itself: a source cannot appear there unless some figure depends on it, and a gap cannot disappear from it without being filled.
Sources and open gapsFollow the flood and heat figures to the trackers that own them
The resilience dimension depends on hazard extents that belong to two other trackers, each with its own model version and uncertainty. This tracker links to them rather than restating them.
Rainfall, space and flooding
Sources
- Multifamily zoning · City of Cambridge
- Cambridge Open Data · City of Cambridge

