In a recent letter to the editor, resident Sam Christy alleged that increasing the supply of housing in our city will not help to bring down the cost of housing.

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To suggest that the laws of economics — namely supply and demand — do not function in Cambridge, that we live in some kind of alternate reality where up is down, left is right, and that the scarcity of new housing is not the primary contributor to exorbitant housing costs is farcical. 

Cambridge, like most other cities in our country, has not permitted widespread housing development for quite some time; until last year, our zoning explicitly prohibited the meaningful construction of new homes here.

Let’s look at another city that, like Cambridge, has adjusted its zoning to allow for more supply: Austin, Texas. According to an analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts, after a record amount of housing production (a 30% increase in homes), Austin’s rents fell by 19% between 2021 and 2026. 

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Even though the population increased, because of Austin’s zoning reforms — because Austin built more homes, housing costs went down.

It’s not rocket science. We can and will build our way to a more affordable Cambridge.

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Noah Harper, AICP / Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge