Image by Ted Eytan licensed under Creative Commons.

How does a growing, prospering city stay affordable for all kinds of people? At the most basic level, when there aren’t enough homes, prices will keep rising. And when there are plenty of homes, it helps prices stay down.

It’s like a huge game of musical chairs. If there aren’t enough chairs when the music stops, someone is left out. When there aren’t enough homes for people who live and work in a city, everybody has to compete for what’s available, and rents go up until people get priced out. In the housing market, instead of being fast, you just need to be rich to stay in the game.

To fix it, we need more homes in all shapes and sizes. That means more cottages, apartments, duplexes, triplexes, condos, and mother-in-law units. More homes allows more people to stay and thrive in their communities. It means more people can afford to live near jobs, great schools, and transit.

Encouraging a variety of homes that fit a variety of people’s needs isn’t the only solution to keep rent and home prices down, but it’s an essential foundation for affordability. It’s the necessary building block on which all kinds of other community protections, anti-displacement measures, affordable housing investments, and neighborhood improvements are built.

Sightline, an advocacy group in Seattle, created this video which is also relevant to DC and many other cities.

Want to get involved with efforts to bring more homes to our region?. Sign up for GGWash's advocacy updates here! If you're not in the Washington area, find a local group here. This article was first published by Sightline.

Sign Up!

Dan Bertolet, senior housing researcher at Sightline Institute, researches, writes about, and speaks about housing and urbanism. He has a background in urban planning and electrical engineering, and his passion is to help create cities that will thrive amidst the challenges of the 21st century.