Isthmus, 3/19/2024
Other cities wish they had the problems Madison has! A growing population and job base, and a high quality of life are much better than the alternatives. But we know that these benefits come with challenges. According to the city’s Housing Snapshot, from 2019-2021 Madison’s population grew at an annualized rate of 2.0%, while the number of households earning less $50,000 shrank alarmingly fast, nearly 6% per year. Lower-income households are being displaced by new residents, and housing costs are rising just as they have in many other booming U.S. cities, including San Francisco, San Jose, Boston and Austin. Extensive reporting by local media has explored why this is happening: Housing costs are rising in part because we are not building enough housing for everyone who wants to live in Madison. [emphasis added]
To state the obvious, we are in a housing crisis and we need to build more housing. This does not mean we need exclusively more market-rate housing, or only affordable housing. We need both, and there is not a conflict between the two.
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