New addresses are falling in New Orleans, Nashville and Washington DC. Cambridge is going the other way: 72 addresses registered for the first time in the year through October 2026, against 39 the year before.
Published November 5, 2026 by Cavmir Research · All research
After the launch in 2018, when 131 certificates went out, Cambridge settled at 39 to 62 a year. 2026 through October has brought 87, already well past the 62 of all 2025. March 2026, at 17, is the busiest month since April 2018.
Numbers this size can jump on small changes. Still, first-time addresses rose along with the total, from 39 to 72, so this is more than past registrants returning. In June 2026 the City Council accepted a petition that would make booking platforms register and face fines of $300 a day per violation, and limit stays to 90 days, Cambridge Day reported. The spring peak came before that vote, so the register can't tie the two together.
| Month | Certificates issued | First-time addresses | Operator occupied | Owner adjacent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2024 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Dec 2024 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| Jan 2025 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Feb 2025 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Mar 2025 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 4 |
| Apr 2025 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 4 |
| May 2025 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Jun 2025 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| Jul 2025 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Aug 2025 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| Sep 2025 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Oct 2025 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 4 |
| Nov 2025 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Dec 2025 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 2 |
| Jan 2026 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 3 |
| Feb 2026 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 4 |
| Mar 2026 | 17 | 10 | 13 | 4 |
| Apr 2026 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 4 |
| May 2026 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 8 |
| Jun 2026 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Jul 2026 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 1 |
| Aug 2026 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| Sep 2026 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Oct 2026 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
The Inspectional Services guide sets out two types. An operator-occupied rental is the operator's own primary residence, with up to three bedrooms rented. An owner-adjacent rental is a separate unit in a building of four or fewer units, all owned by the operator, who lives in one of the others.
376 certificates are operator occupied and 192 are owner adjacent. Of those in date, the split is 129 and 73. Two-family houses are the most common building, at 224 certificates, followed by 114 single-family and 113 three-family buildings.
The same Cambridge Day story gives the Inspectional Services Department's figures: 216 rentals registered, and about 500 estimated to operate without registering. Our in-date estimate of 202, worked out separately from issue dates and renewal schedules, lands close to the City's count. The register can only see the rentals that registered.
Applicants tick the platforms they use. 553 of 569 ticked Airbnb, or 97%, and 79 ticked Vrbo.
| Year | Certificates | Operator occupied | Owner adjacent | One-year schedule | Five-year schedule | Median days, submitted to issued |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 131 | 87 | 43 | 78 | 53 | 38 |
| 2019 | 46 | 39 | 7 | 29 | 17 | 19 |
| 2020 | 43 | 27 | 16 | 31 | 12 | 15 |
| 2021 | 39 | 25 | 14 | 27 | 12 | 7 |
| 2022 | 54 | 39 | 15 | 40 | 14 | 4 |
| 2023 | 56 | 33 | 23 | 26 | 30 | 13 |
| 2024 | 50 | 35 | 15 | 17 | 33 | 14 |
| 2025 | 62 | 39 | 23 | 36 | 26 | 10 |
| 2026 | 88 | 52 | 36 | 67 | 21 | 8 |
2026 runs through November 4.
No single neighborhood dominates. Area Four has 28 certificates in date, North Cambridge has 27, Mid-Cambridge has 25 and Cambridgeport has 24. Mid-Cambridge led on newcomers during the year, 14 up from 5, and North Cambridge went from 3 to 9.
In date is our arithmetic: issue date plus the renewal schedule on the record falls after November 5, 2026.
| Neighborhood | Certificates, all years | Addresses | In date now | New addresses, Nov 2025 to Oct 2026 | New addresses, Nov 2024 to Oct 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area Four | 78 | 62 | 28 | 7 | 7 |
| North Cambridge | 69 | 52 | 27 | 9 | 3 |
| Mid-Cambridge | 61 | 53 | 25 | 14 | 5 |
| Cambridgeport | 69 | 61 | 24 | 8 | 6 |
| Neighborhood Nine | 53 | 43 | 21 | 9 | 4 |
| Wellington-Harrington | 47 | 39 | 17 | 8 | 2 |
| West Cambridge | 42 | 33 | 17 | 5 | 2 |
| East Cambridge | 56 | 49 | 14 | 5 | 7 |
| Riverside | 40 | 32 | 14 | 4 | 2 |
| Agassiz | 33 | 25 | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| Strawberry Hill | 18 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| Cambridge Highlands | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Short Term Rentals comes from the Inspectional Services Department and carries the Public Domain Dedication and License. Each row is a completed registration, and the status column reads Complete on all 569, so the file can't say which are still operating. To estimate that, we added the renewal schedule on each record (one year or five years) to its issue date, and counted it as in date if the result falls after November 5, 2026. Treat that 202 as an estimate.
The dataset also holds applicant names and form answers, which we left out of the pull on November 5, 2026. We took issue date, submit date, type, property type, bedrooms, schedule, platform ticks, address and neighborhood. 96 addresses have two or more certificates, and the earliest one marks the first-time address. The guide we cite is an earlier City document, and the register's two schedules suggest terms have varied over time, so we report the schedules as filed.
Against the portal's own counts, 16 of 16 checks matched: total, year, schedule, type and March 2026.
Each is a small table of counts with no addresses. CC BY 4.0, link to this page when you use one.
Cavmir Research, Cambridge Short-Term Rental Registrations, data read in November 2026 (City of Cambridge dataset wxgv-w968). https://cavmir.com/resources/research/cambridge-short-term-rental-registrations/
The City's register holds 569 certificates at 465 addresses since 2018. Using each certificate's issue date and renewal schedule, about 202 were in date on November 5, 2026, close to the 216 the City's Inspectional Services Department gave in June 2026. The department also estimates about 500 unregistered rentals, according to Cambridge Day.
Yes. 101 certificates went out in the year ending October 2026, against 59 a year earlier. First-time addresses went from 39 to 72.
The City's guide describes two: operator occupied, where the operator lives in the unit as a primary residence and may rent up to three bedrooms, and owner adjacent, where the operator lives in another unit of a building with four or fewer units that the operator owns.
Area Four has 28 certificates in date, North Cambridge has 27 and Mid-Cambridge has 25. Over all years, 78 certificates have gone to Area Four.
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