Google would not have considered constructing 15k homes had interest rates not been at historic lows. They're not in the construction or real estate business.

And I fail to see what is absurd and obscene, except perhaps the inverse, that low interest rates caused such extreme market distortions that you have a massive company outside of the real estate industry looking into creating 15,000 homes. What is not absurd or obscene about that to you? We don't live in the company-town days any more (not that Google was trying to create a company-town, but they are, again, not in the real estate business).