California….and the livin’ is… PRICEY

Silicon Valley has become a popular place for tech businesses…after all, it now has its own television show.

It was a manageable section of the country just 15 years ago. The population of Mountain View is now about 80,000, with about 25% of the population working at Google.

But the infrastructure hasn’t kept up.

In 2000, Google had a few dozen employees. Fast forward to 2015, with >50,000 employees worldwide, and most of those in northern California. Real estate costs are absurdly expensive. One bedroom apartments near the Googleplex average $2000-$3000/month. I have been shielded from this by getting Google corporate housing for the last 3 months. But the 3 months will come to a close in another few weeks, and so I am in full-gear-apartment search.

There are lots of apartment complexes that have sprouted up. I refer to them as dormitories for grown-ups. The apartments don’t have much character, style, or soul; they are clean, new, and pricey. Some photos of the complexes in my community in Santa Clara are included.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNAPOs99u8F-q2oQKZmJ2nI5ZKUa75Ulqs8QDarEXNafoe1E3mLVihBpZI7jkicQQ?key=TlhFSEtpYldBWFM5ZV9zby1RaVdyaHR4SHN1RTBn

The closer you are to the hub of the action (or, if you choose to be in San Francisco), the more expensive the options are.I am now very close to the hub of the action. In my 7 mile drive to the Google office, I pass Oracle, Yahoo, Juniper Networks, Lockheed Martin…All contributing to the density of population.And, therefore, the density of traffic. You can get a more affordable living space if you are willing to drive 25 or 30 miles to work. No big deal in Westchester County, but here, you will be in traffic for hours. I have rather modest criteria for the apartment that I choose…but proximity to the office is high on the desirable list.

My recommendation to all the big companies here, and to the municipalities that house them: When you expand your complex and increase your population, you should be obligated to build with it a lot of housing, so that you increase supply and reduce the outrageous cost of housing. Sort of like the mandate to provide parking facilities if you build a housing project that will bring thousands of cars to the area. And if the communities and companies are going to allow tens of thousands of employees to come in for work, then housing needs to become more NYC-like - - multi-story, multi unit. It is lovely to have town ordinances that mandate pastoral garden apartments. But it can’t absorb the masses; and the intense demand drives prices haywire. Housing accommodations on the work site will also reduce some of the traffic burden, as these same employees won’t then crowd the highways.  I shoulda been a city planner…J