A new crisis has hit Silicon Valley — a shortage of houses. The scarcity is so high that social media giant Facebook is taking the initiative to develop homes into its own hands with a plan to construct 1500 new units near its headquarters.
The growth of tech giants like Facebook, Alphabet’s Google, and other technology companies placed tremendous stress on area neighborhoods to accommodate. The Bay Area was not ready for the sudden influx of workers that San Francisco witnessed in the past decade. As a result, the prices of homes and commute times spiked drastically.
Additionally, several companies are taking the initiative to help employees with longer commute times such as buses with high speed internet connectivity. Facebook offered incentives worth $10,000 to its workers who move closer to their offices.
However, such initiatives have not addressed the core problem of reducing commute time and on top of that, the looming shortage of housing available, which tech companies are not able to cater to.
According to Sam Khater, Deputy Chief Economist at real estate search firm CoreLogic, the problem with Silicon Valley is that there is no sufficient supply to meet the huge demands of the area.
With Facebook taking the initiative to invest in Menlo Park, where it is headquartered, it could be anticipated that other Silicon Valley giants will do the same.
Anirudh M. for TechFunnel.com
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