Too much talk this week was about Apple, the release of the new iPad, the new $660 price target at Goldman Sachs, etc. But you know what else Apple did? It gave Silicon Valley the biggest real estate rental boom since the peak of the dot-com period. The Cupertino, CA based company expanded its space by 2.7m square feet in 2011 alone. Leasing broker Cassidy Turley estimates the rental cost in the area will rise another 11% in 2012 given the additional 700,000 square feet demand Apple might have this year. Silicon Valley’s office space rental price topped in last quarter of year 2000 at $77 per square foot. We’ll keep seeing price heading back to that direction as Apple continues to expand its headquarters. To summarize this week for you on this spotlight stock, Apple is now trading at $544 and change, just an inch below its 52-week high of 548.21.
