Partial agreement with Loki and answer to TartyMae:

Loki,

CA property is far from homogeneous. The coastal area and beaches is what one often imagines when conjuring up an image of CA. This land is a scare commodity and has always been in demand during the 60 years I've been old enough to observe things like that. Then there are the inland areas, the Bakersfields and Riversides and so forth. These are not the image of CA, with its beautiful beaches and mild climate. This is essentially desert area, and it gets hot in the summer and colder in the winter. There is a lot more of this land in CA than there is coastal strip. Except for its commuting distance, a minor market crash in Riverside wouldn't surprise me. And builders can just move over a couple of miles to build the next tract of new houses and mini-mall. But if you want to live, say, in Santa Monica, as a lot of people with the means do, they are not making anymore of that, so it reamins a scarce commodity.

TartyMae,

In a rapidly rising market, your savings may not rise as fast as the market. I saw a number of colleagues get locked out of the market in the Stanford University area while they waited.

db