“There’s so much focus by city leadership on swanky downtown condos, that cost more than my house did,” Akins math teacher Natalee Peterson said.

We as the editorial board of The Eagle’s Eye agree with Peterson. The cost of Austin living has reached an all time high, and it’s outrageous.

Sail down Lady Bird Lake, walk through the Bob Bullock History Museum, and shop on South Congress. Austin is a thriving youthful city, full of unique restaurants, wide shopping variety, and home to a huge live music scene. We have something for everyone here. Families with younger children can enjoy events like the Kite Festival, Trail of Lights, and visit the Thinkery, other known as the Austin Children’s Museum. Teenagers and older citizens enjoy events like ACL, South by Southwest, and other various local concerts held in the venues downtown.

According to the Austin Visitor’s Bureau 22.6 million people visited Austin in 2014. In addition, according to the Austin Chamber of Commerce, the Austin MSA population grew by 13.2 percent.

We love sharing our city and our home with people everywhere. However, Austin is no longer an affordable place to live. We have so many people moving here that some people’s property taxes have risen 60 percent in 8 years in some cases, forcing even teachers in our school district to move away to afford a home.

To meet the huge need for housing in Austin, new apartment complexes are being built, along with more subdivisions with houses. Unfortunately, the pace of building is not nearly enough to keep up with the explosive population growth. According to the Austin Real Estate Council,  from 2000 to 2012, the Austin region grew by more than 570,000 new residents, but the number of housing units within the city limits increased by only about 84,000.

Our generation faces the very real possibility that we will not be able to afford to buy a home in the very city we call home because of how quickly housing costs are rising. And if the very people who grew up in Austin are not able to stay here the character of the city is likely to change dramatically.

It could soon get to the point where it becomes just another overgrown metropolis without the character Austin is known for.

Until there is enough housing for everyone who wants to live in Austin to live here, something needs to be done to alleviate the strain on Austinites. According to a student survey conducted by The Eagle’s Eye, almost half the survey group indicated that their family was thinking of moving to the suburbs such as Buda and Kyle to be able to purchase an affordable home.

People have every right to live where they want, but something needs to be done to fix the affordability. Right now, some of those things are of the following:

• raise people’s wages
• change the way tax appraisals are determined
• give tax breaks to people who have lived in Austin for an extended period of time
• give  tax breaks on property outside of downtown Austin

The editorial board believes that the best way to fix the housing problem with the least repercussions is to implement tax breaks for long standing Austinites.

This would alleviate some of the expenses on those living in Austin, and increase expenses for those moving into the area. While this may sound like discouraging people to live here, it in fact would help the city.

This would slow down population growth temporarily so that the supply of housing can match the demand for housing, rather than the demand for housing rising exponentially while people come in quicker than housing can be provided. While this might sound unfair, this would only be temporary, and the taxes would only apply to new Austinites until they have lived in Austin long enough, which encourages long term living in Austin.