I am 29 years old and have a good job. I have lived in New York City my entire life with the exception of college.

I love this city. But I can't afford to get old here.

While growing up in the projects of Coney Island, my dad dreamed of buying a house in Sea Gate, Brooklyn. With my immigrant mom, he rented a small apartment, then moved to a bigger one and, then, my parents accomplished their American Dream and bought the house next door. Even though my family moved three times, I grew up on one block. And, frankly, I never desired to move much farther away.

But after the month I just spent looking for homes to buy, I am in a permanent state of shock at the price tags. It takes at least $200,000 for a one-bedroom the size of a closet. Forget about buying a home I can actually raise a family in one day.

It's not just me. Although ownership is at a high in New York City, only 48% of the city's housing stock was affordable in 2005, down from 58% three years prior.

It's harder for young people. In 2004, people ages 25 to 34 made up about 16% of the city's population, but owned only 10% of owner-occupied housing units. The majority of my renting city peers spend a quarter of their income on rent. So much for saving for a down payment.

In fact, just about all of my home-owning peers were beneficiaries of death or guilt. A relative's passing left a modest inheritance, or a guilty parent fronted the down payment.

I talked to Kathryn Wylde, head of the Partnership for New York City, about my plight. "In 1977, I bought my co-op for $45,000 and still live there," she said. "The same apartment in our Bay Ridge building is selling for $450,000 today. Our future as a city depends on attracting and keeping young talent and nothing is more important to achieving that objective than access to homeownership."

But where on the city's agenda is the effort to enable young people to grow up and raise their own families with the modest expectation that they do no worse than their own parents?

This city risks losing the base of people who have an investment in its future - those who will, for example, accept temporary tax increases to plug budget gaps or put more cops on the streets. It risks losing the people who, like me, went to the same school as their parents.

In a city that is deeply impacted by poverty, the fact that I can't buy my first home is not the most pressing problem. But it is a good sign that we are becoming a city of the very wealthy and everyone else.

Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy