Increasing the supply of housing really does affect prices

Here's a good illustration of the fact that the rules of supply and demand apply even to housing.  (Thanks to the Crossland Team.)  Check out the second chart.  Between 2001 and 2003, home prices stabilized (or stagnated, depending on your point of view) because of a surplus of housing.  The oversupply directly affected the rental market:  Average rents dropped for four straight years, and only recently have begun to rise again.

The market provided affordable housing in Austin for decades.   It can still.  Just let the market meet demand.  Reduce minimum lot sizes.  Permit more dense development like row houses and town homes.  Open residential neighborhoods to small multi-family developments -- four-plexes or six-plexes.  That's the solution to our affordability crisis, not affordable housing quotas.