Orange County remains an attractive location for technology companies, in spite of skyrocketing housing costs, a California State University, Fullerton, study reports.
Radha Bhattacharya, associate professor of economics at the university’s College of Business and Economics, conducted the study, “Housing Affordability in the Southland: Will It Stifle the Regional High-Tech Boom?”
In the study, Bhattacharya looks at the reasons for high housing costs and the effect of rising prices on future economic development. Her results show that OC’s median housing price surpasses that of several other high-tech clusters, including Atlanta, Phoenix, Austin, Dallas and North Carolina’s Research Triangle. Only the Bay Area, Silicon Valley and San Diego were more expensive in terms of housing.
However, because of its higher ranking in air quality, higher index of culture, greater number of sunny days and other variables, OC still attracts skilled labor, according to her research.
She believes that such amenities will continue to draw knowledge-intensive high-tech jobs, and that the clustering of tech firms here is partly to blame for higher home prices.
“Higher home prices alone will not stifle its regional economic boom in the foreseeable future,” she said. “High costs (specific to Orange County) alone are not likely to stifle the regional economic boom, as long as firms in OC remain competitive and stay at the cutting edge of technology.”
According to Bhattacharya, underlying economic and institutional structure, plus linkages across firms are critical factors that will influence the success of Orange County.
“The process of high-tech clustering was initiated in OC as a consequence of its previous defense (role) and has now achieved a momentum of its own in the broader high-technology sector,” she said. n
