San Jose

iPhones May Be Connected to Swelling Bay Area Home Values

A new study suggests that home prices near Apple headquarters increased after the first iPhone's release

What does the iPhone have to do with home prices? More than you might think, apparently. A new study has found a connection between the 2007 release of the Apple device and skyrocketing real estate in the Bay Area.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, researchers at Zillow were able to zoom in on the home values of Apple, Google and Facebook employees. Some of the results of the study – like the non-revelation that employees at tech giants are able to buy more expensive homes on average – come as no surprise. Others findings, however, suggest that Apple employees in particular have been driving up home prices since the first iPhone’s release.

“Apple workers’ home values took off after the first iPhone was released, when Apple’s stock price rose, increasing the wealth of many employees,” reports the study.

Prior to the smartphone’s release, the typical Apple worker based at the company's Cupertino headquarters lived in a home that was 13 percent more expensive than the typical San Jose home. Now, the study reports, that number has ballooned to 20% within the same San Jose metro area. The data suggests that the concentration of Apple employees could drive up prices and displace long-time residents in the process.

Home values for employees of Google and Facebook also increased since 2007, but more modestly, with 2 percent bumps each.

The data may not shock Bay Area residents who have grown accustomed to seeing swelling rents, but the results of the study could still serve as a warning to other regions soliciting tech giants: where techies go, rising prices follow.
 

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