Bay Area Case Study

Why did the Bay Area’s housing become so expensive to live in? How did it get so expensive? These questions were often asked by visitors that came from that were cities far from the Bay Area like Fremont and Sacramento. Over the past seven years, the Bay Area’s housing prices have increased exponentially as more people come in for technology job opportunities. According to a scholarly article, called Zillow: Tech Workers' Silicon Valley Home Values Are Outpacing Neighbors' ,“Bay Area home values are soaring, driven by a flood of well-paying jobs at technology companies”(qtd. Zillow: Tech Workers' Silicon Valley Home Values Are Outpacing Neighbors'). Workers that come to this city would need to find a sustainable housing for themselves. Unfortunately, with so much competition to find housing, landlords are able to increase the prices of their rent. As the rent in the Bay Area increase due to this matter, low paid workers are unable to afford their basic living in the Bay Area due to the high expenses while only few can afford a place to stay. During the past few years, the price for renting an apartment continues to increase as more job opportunities are located in
The wage difference in San Francisco between the technology workers verses workers in other fields has a big impact. According to the Tom Kaneshige, a senior online writer at CIO.com that covers BYOD and consumer technology in the enterprise, and has been covering business and technology for two decades stated that the minimum wage for those working in the technology industry is roughly $19.00 per hour this year. However, the minimum wage for the people working San Francisco as a normal retail companies like Best Buy is roughly $11.00. The huge wage difference attracts many people to come to San Francisco because they are able to make 70%