Palo Alto Considers Subsidizing Housing For Those Making $250,000 a Year

• March 25, 2016
• 1 Comment

by UrbanTurf Staff

A home for sale in Palo Alto for about $2.5 million.

Today in crazy housing news: The Palo Alto City Council is considering a proposal that would subsidize housing for families making between $150,000 and $250,000 a year.

CBS San Francisco is reporting that the Council is studying the proposal that “would focus on building smaller, downtown units for people who live near transit and don’t own cars, along with mixed-use retail and residential developments.”

While the measure is still a ways from becoming a reality, the very proposal speaks to the issues arising from the Silicon Valley housing crunch. And the fact that the median price for a home in Palo Alto is north of $2 million doesn’t actually make the proposal that outlandish.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/palo_alto_considers_subsidizing_housing_for_those_making_250000_a_year/11028

1 Comment

1. MP said at 6:22 pm on Friday March 25, 2016:
   While this does seem outrageous, DC has subsidized some pretty wealthy families as well. I don't know if it is still a thing, but in 2011, they provided subsidies for 'workforce housing.' In order to qualify, a family had to make between between 80% and 115% of the median DC income which translated to about $82,000 to $120,000. In fact, this site still have an article on it: http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/opportunity_to_buy_at_a_discount_in_capitol_riverfront/3179 Not quite the $150-250K of Palo Alto, but the median price of a home in DC is significantly less than $2M (~$550K as of June 2015)