Why is housing so unaffordable in Cambridge?

Cambridge’s population has grown much faster than its supply of housing, especially affordable housing. The primary culprit? Our zoning laws – layers of inequitable restrictions, accumulated over decades, that severely limit where housing can be built in our city. This has caused our housing supply to fall ever further behind our needs and has caused rents to skyrocket. The Cambridge housing market has become a cruel game of musical chairs, with those least able to afford rent getting pushed out.