Microsoft to invest an additional $250 million to address the affordable housing crisis in Seattle

 A year ago Microsoft yesterday announced a massive $500 million investment over the next three years to tackle the affordable housing crisis in Puget Sound area. Likely due to the influence of tech company employees, over the past few years, the price of houses in Puget Sound region has gone up significantly and it has pushed out people with lower and even middle incomes. In fact, Puget Sound has become the sixth most expensive region in the country.

Now Microsoft has announced that it is increasing its spending on affordable housing in the Seattle area by 50 percent, spending an additional $250 million.

The additional $250 million will come in the form of a line of credit to the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, allowing it to offer more tax-exempt bonds for affordable housing projects, likely funding an additional 3000 homes.

Microsoft has already spent $380 million of the $750 million grant.

Microsoft initially led the pack but other companies have now overtaken Microsoft in their philanthropy.

In November, Apple announced a $2.5 billion pledge to help alleviate California’s housing crisis, while Facebook and Google both offered $1 billion.

Learn more about Microsoft’s announcement here.

Via Geekwire