Monday, November 4, 2019
Apple Commits $2.5 Billion to Ease California Housing Crunch
Monday, Apple announced a $2.5 Billion plan to address the housing crisis in California. They are the latest big tech company to devote money to a problem the economist and lawmakers believe it helped to create. Apple plans to invest $1 Billion affordable housing and plans another $1 Billion to buy mortgages. Apple also intends to make a 40-acre, $300 million dollar property in San Jose available for new affordable housing. Apple's housing plan is a response to the increasing pressure Silicon Valley's tech giants are under to play a more active role in the region's housing crisis. Local tech companies big and small have boomed, they have flooded the region with hundreds of thousands of highly paid employees, but the supply of housing has failed to keep pace.
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It seems to me that this is a really good example of Apple, and other participating companies, taking responsibility for their roles in a crisis. Essentially it sounds like because all of these tech giants are located in Silicon Valley they have inundated the housing market with their employees, ballooning housing prices through a huge increase in demand, and not enough growth. Certainly by adding more housing they should be able to lower the housing prices, but how much housing would they need to add to lower the market to an actually attainable equilibrium? It might be more than they are willing to contribute.
ReplyDeleteThis does not surprise me; there is pressure on all big corporations to be more socially conscious. Apple is simply being on trend here, and it is high-time they did; inequality has been constantly increasing in the country (if we look at the gini index) and we need to take steps to reverse this trend.
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