Facebook’s company town

Social networking giant Facebook plans to build at least 1,500 units of housing in its hometown of Menlo Park, Calif. Small in relation to the bruising housing shortage in Silicon Valley, the move could stimulate other large firms to build housing too.

Facebook’s project, which still lacks details, would not limit buyers or renters to company employees, but rather would be open to the general public. Some 15 percent of the units would be reserved for families with low and moderate incomes.

State figures show the area (including the city of San Francisco just north of the Valley) added 380,000 jobs from 2010 to 2015 while only 58,000 construction permits for housing were issued, according to The Wall Street Journal.

No letup in demand is in sight. Several firms are building or planning office developments. (Facebook is among them, with plans to add space for some of an expected 6,500 new employees. In December of last year the company reported 12,691 employees.) Some municipalities are considering rent controls; the city of Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley, has banned new downtown offices.

One question is, sell or rent the units? Rental would tie up Facebook’s capital. Prices have increased so much that public or company subsidies should not be necessary, and Facebook should expect a market return on its investment, for which it already owns the land.

Could private companies be tapped in the Boston area to help with Mayor Marty Walsh’s goal of 53,000 new units of all kinds by 2030? Though housing costs are rising here, they have not matched the booming increases of the Silicon ValleySan Francisco area, and the Boston area lacks the concentration of cash-flush large employers of Silicon Valley. Still, if the right opportunity shows up, it should be seized.