Inside a 200-square-foot apartment

I was referring to affordable housing built before and immediately after WW-II, and how US cities eroded the practice of building reasonably sized, affordable housing after the early 1950s.

By that I mean the 380 square foot studios and 500 square foot 1 bedroom rental units that I see in other cities.
In their day, these were affordable for young couples and single workers.

But then came the demand that houses be of a minimal size with minimum amounts of land and prohibit separate quarters for even related elders and young adults. Many places also prohibited "mobile homes" from being set up on land parcels.

We also have neighborhood groups causing delays and making demands for kickbacks and demanding architectural significance and all that adds cost. Then there is the failure, noted by Rhoninfire, to expand the transit system in a balanced way.

Throw in a large bump of young people with significant debt loads, tighten the restrictions on mortgages and BOOM - extreme rents.

I don't think someone paying $1200 a month to live alone in Porter Square has been duped at all - do you know how much a T pass costs per month? How about a car? I figure young people are actually finally doing the same math that my husband and I did 20 years ago, and making the trade offs. It isn't dumb to pay an extra $300-$400 in rent and walk or bike to work if it means that you don't pay $600-$800 a month in car payment, gas, taxes, parking, and insurance.