The Dorchester real estate market continues to soar, even as the stock markets falter and the national economy rides through the current recession.

Home ownership, long the American dream, has become the best and safest investment for working class persons stunned by layoffs and pension fund collapses. People have found that deposits in savings offer very little return&emdash; and if they have any money to save or invest, the financial markets are simply too risky.

And so people have turned to investing in housing- not just single family homes for their primary residence, but to the two family and three deckers that can be both a residence and a source of income. And it's precisely those two and three family homes that predominate in Dorchester that have supported the real estate boom in our community. A generation ago, when single family homes in the suburbs were still affordable, Dorchester's multi-family units were less attractive, for the homeowner was required to be a landlord as well. Today, these units are highly prized for their investment potential- you can live there and have a positive cash flow as well.

But there is a severe downside to these boom times: for landlords to have financial stability, they need a supply of tenants willing and able to pay the rent. As purchase prices have soared, so too have the rents new landlords seek from their tenants.

One local woman this week said that when her three decker was sold, she was stunned by the price the new owner was asking: she has been paying $1200 a month, she said, and the new rent was $2200- a $1000 increase. The woman and her family cannot afford it, and they are now looking for a new place to live.

There is a crisis in affordable housing that is not going to go away.

That's why the bold initiative announced this week by Mayor Menino is so timely. Boston's affordable housing crisis largely dates back to 1994, when the state's voters banished rent control across Massachusetts. Since then, apartment prices have grown uncontrolled, and the gap between a family's income and the costs of an apartment has widened. It's a classic case of the free market economy taking hold, with the demand to live in the city far outstripping the supply of housing units available. And as newly upward mobile income earners purchased the city's homes or moved into the available apartments, persons of low and modest incomes have been squeezed out.

It is a crisis, and it worsens each and every week.

The Menino plan will face some huge hurdles: it must pass through the City Council and must be approved by both the Legislature and the new Governor, whoever that will be.

A key to the plan is that it is pegged to the Consumer Price Index (CPI)- as prices goes up, it is reasonable to expect that rents will follow. But there really is no excuse for the price-gouging that is now prevalent in the apartment rental business.

We support Mayor Menino's idea and we hope that the political people who will now consider it will do the right thing.

-Ed Forry