The NY Times reports that Microsoft is investing $500 million to build affordable housing!
The Times quotes Satya Nadella, the chief executive, and Brad Smith, its president of Microsoft, was a result of a concern that the housing initiative came out of concern about skyrocketing real estate prices for Microsoft workers. Nadella said, “We are going to invest quite a bit, Of course, we have lots of software engineers, but the reality is that a lot of people work for Microsoft. Cafeteria workers, shuttle drivers. We have a real challenge. We don’t have enough affordable housing units.”
As bid as a half billion dollars may seem, estimates of “new” residents in the Seattle area over the last few years are in the 100s of thousands // Amazon, Expedia, Google, Apple, Starbucks, and Microsoft. This leads to government estimates of a need for 200.000 more units now and in the near future.
Ar current prices, Nadella’s $500,000,000 is only likely to build 2000 units even if the land were free.