Could the SF housing problem be addressed by moving the jobs? (Richmond: to rent, houses)

[Netflix]

What if Google decided to move offices to Austin, TX, Portland, or Seattle? Would that have any impact on housing costs in the bay area? If so why is this not being discussed? Is there really a housing problem, or is it really a jobs problem and we're just not thinking about it correctly?

[beb0p]

Google already have offices in Seattle, Portland, and Austin.

Has that impacted Bay Area housing cost in any way? You tell me.
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[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by Netflix

What if Google decided to move offices to Austin, TX, Portland, or Seattle? Would that have any impact on housing costs in the bay area? If so why is this not being discussed? Is there really a housing problem, or is it really a jobs problem and we're just not thinking about it correctly?

Look at a map and that will answer your question. Limited land with a good economy. If you want to destroy the economy for cheap rent, you will be in worse shape than before because now the local government won't be able to fund any programs or maintain the city. Meanwhile you'll be lucky making minimum wage, so who cares about cheap rent in that case. If you say the tech industry doesn't have a big enough impact on our economy, well then it also wouldn't have a big impact on general rent prices. I can tell you that rejecting development projects does more damage to rent prices because you are limiting supply.

[likealady]

As BMX said, rejecting development does more to damage rent prices than where offices are located. Decades of NIMBYism and refusing to address the growing population has led to these problems. You cannot add thousands of jobs without planning for the influx of people, which leads us to the crowding we have today. We can't be acting like SF is a small town with its quaint little houses anymore and shouldn't have been for decades. Have you seen the bridge traffic and Bart cars coming into the city each day? Almost bumper to bumper traffic from the toll plaza to Richmond, sometimes beyond. Incredible.

That said, I do think if they pushed more offices out of SF and SV to east bay or something it might help. But that will always come with the struggle to attract talent because SF is the place to be.