All that Northern Califonia pricing shit started about 5 years ago..all cause of the net. I grew up in San Jose and it's always been computer central, and never that expensive. But once the internet got big, all the dot-coms parked there businesses there and drove the housing prices right up.
With the economy still going down, and dot-coms continuing to fold, i'm curious to see where the real estate market will end up in the following years.
Regardless, can't beat Southern California (in my opinion)