Google CEO Larry Page: Million Dollar Houses In Silicon Valley Should Only Cost $50,000

[steve2470]

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-ceo-larry-page-houses-should-only-cost-50000-2014-11

Google CEO Larry Page thinks houses in Silicon Valley are needlessly expensive.

He believes million dollar homes should be going for $50,000.

Richard Waters at the Financial Times interviewed Page, and reported the following:

"Even more than technology, he puts this down to policy changes needed to make land more readily available for construction. Rather than exceeding $1m, there’s no reason why the median home in Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley, shouldn’t cost $50,000, he says."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-ceo-larry-page-houses-should-only-cost-50000-2014-11#ixzz3HrXVZtcB

[Retrograde]

1. One Google-related reason

Google bought several houses in Palo Alto to house its visiting employees, taking them off the market and reducing demand.

I bought a low-priced, 900 sq ft house in Palo Alto nearly 40 years ago: it was over $100K back then. I agree, the prices are too high, but a lot of it is due to companies like Google that bring in high-priced workers.

[unblock]

2. my guess is a parking space in silicon valley would fetch more than $50,000.

just because he's rich doesn't mean he can't say something stupid.

[codecus]

9. Silicon Valley house cost $50k

Page is arrogant and unrealistic or stupid to say silicon valley house should not cost $50k. May be he can say people's salary should not more than $50k in silicon valley.

[Cleita]

3. At one time they did and you could get a very nice home for that

price in the 70s before the passage of proposition 13, which inflated the RE market to where it is today all because people didn't want to pay higher property taxes.

[lpbk2713]

4. Does he need "market driven economy" explained to him?

They go for a million bucks because people like him will pay a million bucks.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. He can move Google to my neighborhood.

Houses actually do cost $50k.

[pnwmom]

6. Sure, if you pay all the carpenters, etc., about 50 cents an hour

and get all the materials and the lot for free.

What a moron.

[ileus]

7. The countertops in those homes cost more than 50k.

[hunter]

8. Maybe he could pick up Google and move it to Detroit...

... right?

[cemaphonic]

10. Surely he means "horses" instead of "houses" right.

I agree, no reason to pay $1m for a horse even in Silicon Valley.

The lot my house sits on has an assessment of about $150k, and it's a weird sloped lot that's close to a freeway, and also isn't in freaking Silicon Valley.