I think a significant amount of personnel at the Hillsboro fab were working on analog chip processes (45nm, 65nm), which are extremely commodified and distract from Intel's goals around becoming a bleeding edge foundry.
That said, Intel Hillsboro employs around 23,000 people so this is a significant but not organization ending layoff.
A home costs ~25% of the down payment on the day you buy it. Unless you have the cash to float multiple rental properties - moving is going to be painful financially.
It would require a very large income to offset the financial cost of renting a home, which would in turn reduce the likelihood that I would take a financial risk on a new startup or push harder at work.
Also, it's worth pointing out that your 10 year sample happened to be one during which housing construction was at historically low rates, which lead to exceptional increases in housing prices. There are other 10 year spans in which your outcome would have been very different.
It's a large financial benefit to own a home, it's a massive cost to move for a job if that forces you to abandon home ownership in favor of renting. This cost would incentivize workers to work at jobs which don't make use of their skills or avoid jobs which could leave them in a career desert of a location.
https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/this-corporate-landlord-o...
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/1-Complaint_0.p...
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/09/...
Who has 25% just sitting around
Home ownership is a great financial vehicle in up markets, or if you live in a location for a long period of time.
There is a decent network of employers in the semiconductor fabrication space in Portland - both foundries as well as vendors.
It's part of the larger Portland MSA, and Hillsboro-Beaverton has plenty of opportunities.
That said, Intel leadership kept concentrating on Analog Chips for too long (which was overwhelming at the Hillsboro and Kiryat Gan foundries), which made this layoff and buyout situation extremely painful.
They did this briefly after the 2008 crash, but I think they changed it back to where you can put no money down but pay extra (PMI) insurance.
2008 lessons learned, huh?
>A home costs ~25% of the down payment on the day you buy it.
I think this is related to the conventional wisdom that you shouldn't buy a house unless you expect to live there for ~7 years (I think, I can't remember if that number is right). I think they're referring to the costs associated with the sale (pulling permits, mortgage costs, real estate agent, etc.).
So on a $500,000 house, a traditional down payment would be $100,000, making closing costs $25,000. Sounds like it's within an order of magnitude.