As Cambridge residents for the past six years, we write in support of the City Council passing six-story multifamily housing citywide. Our family is doing well financially in terms of having two incomes and our son goes to Baldwin, which is a great school (part of Cambridge public schools) and is free. We have been saving money over many years toward a down payment and thought we were comfortably poised to buy a house. Since the pandemic, though, we have seen such drastic increases in housing prices in the area that the value of our savings has declined and we cannot put down enough of a down payment that will make a mortgage affordable.
In addition to high mortgage payments, the cost of homeownership includes the cost of repairs and maintenance of the property. Most homes are old and require major repairs such as bathroom and sewage plumbing, reflooring and fixing structural issues. I have seen the struggle of parents have who bought a home but taken on record amounts of debt. All their savings have gone into the down payment, and they are putting a higher percentage of their income toward mortgage payments.
The high cost of housing is exacerbating inequity among families at the Baldwin School. I know families that are pulling kids out of after-school programs to save money and cutting down kids’ enrichment activities to pay for high rent or bank repayments; folks who afford homes comfortably can spend more resources on providing enriching opportunity for kids. Some parents who own homes comfortably are so well off that they have pulled their kids out of public schools and placed them in private schools, where they provide even more resources to kids.
The question is not whether private schools are better than a school such as Baldwin. But how is it possible that we have an environment in which $40,000 to $50,000 on school fees is so easily affordable by a few while others struggle to buy or own homes? The stress of owning a home is becoming unbearable, and the narrative about homeownership is changing. Parents are saying we have done everything right, worked hard, got good jobs, but we are on the edge when it comes to housing payments. In addition, the bank payments benefit the bank for the first 10 years, while parents don’t build sufficient equity. This makes their situation more precarious, as they can’t leave the area lest they lose money on the investment.
We need housing in the range of $500,000 to $700,000 for a 1,000-square-foot place. That price with two incomes in my case is affordable. I am not looking to buy a mansion for my family of three, but something I can call home and have equity in. When similar homes are selling at $1.5 million, working hard is not going to help you achieve homeownership; you might as well throw in the towel and look in terms of basic needs and survival.
I support the proposal to create housing by allowing six-story buildings throughout the city. This would make it possible for a family such as mine to own a place and stay in Cambridge.
Ajay Sonalkar, Dunster Street, Cambridge
A stronger
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The opponents of housing don’t want you to stay in Cambridge. They want you to be forced out so they can keep living in their fantasy land where nothing changes. They want the city to figure out exactly how many low income workers the city needs to staff their favorite artisanal gluten free bakeries and not one person more.
Thank you, Ajay, for highlighting the situation that many families now face. My wife and I were fortunate to be able to buy a home after six years of renting in Cambridge…but that was in 1998. Since then, our housing regulations have heightened the financial barriers that divide households.
Two Councilors have offered an amendment to limit the reform to areas near unspecified squares and along selected “corridor” streets, and exempting areas now designated for single- and two-family houses only. This will increase geographic segregation, constructing further inequitable barriers between neighborhoods for years to come.
It’s so important that Cambridge move forward with the Housing Committee’s reform proposal, as originally designed, as soon as possible.
Fully agree. More housing allows more people to live in Cambridge. Cambridge should not be an exclusive country club for just the rich
You won’t see affordable housing from this, the speculators are already trying to buy things up for a mini real estate boom and further price hike upward.
Private Equity Funds are backing Developers and they have plans to take out entire existing neighborhoods.
The Cold Calls and efforts to convince property owners to sell are already ongoing, they have been going on all summer since this process started. They especially are targeting the Owner occupied properties, since they contain voters that they would love to remove from the city (especially ahead of the election so they might no be qualified to vote where they might move to due to the high cost of real estate).
They figure everyone has a price.
How many of the folks pushing for this in city hall are actual residents in this city? How many of them are renters vs property owners?
@Cambridgejoe I think we can all agree that housing is way too expensive in Cambridge, correct? If building more housing isn’t the solution you like, how do you propose to lower prices? How do we keep middle class residents in the city with skyrocketing rents and increasingly unaffordable real estate?