Middle-income workers pressed to find housing in Palo Alto
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/housing/2025/08/01/holding-on-by-our-fingertips/
As Erica Lewis moved between housing options in Palo Alto the last 17 years, staying connected to the community where she worked remained a priority.
When a $20,000 electrical issue in her rental unit prompted a rent hike, she began seriously exploring homeownership. But Lewis, a dietitian at Palo Alto Medical Foundation, soon confronted a dilemma all too familiar to many local families: buying a home was financially out of reach, but a long commute from a more affordable area would have lowered her quality of life.
“It just felt like we [had] to accept what we get,” Lewis said. “It’s kind of like we were holding on by the very skin of our fingertips.”
Across the Bay Area, people are struggling to make ends meet, and finding affordable housing is a big part of the problem. Nowhere is that problem more acute than on the Midpeninsula, where money managers say it takes a million-dollar salary to afford a starter home – the highest home prices in the state of California.
In March, after more than a decade on the waiting list, Lewis and her husband finally became homeowners through Palo Alto’s Below Market Rate (BMR) Housing Purchase Program. The initiative helps low- and moderate-income households buy homes in Palo Alto, and Lewis bought a three-bedroom unit in a new Greer Park development for roughly 30% of market value. For a family of three, the income maximum for the BMR housing purchase program is just under $200,000.