Immigration is the largest factor. Leading realtor in heart of SillyCon Valley reports three-quarters of purchases are from communist China, etc. Many for all cash. Very few local folks can afford to buy anymore. How long will the commies let the money leave? Nobody knows. It does buy a lot of influence But the commies used to restrict money from leaving. So they could always do it again. This reality is ( we are told by many Asians) is why so many of them are rushing to get money out of there right now. Go figure?! ( average sale price of 60 year old house in Palo Alto is now 2.5 million dineros)
money from PRC insiders is driving a lot of the Vancouver B.C. real estate craziness as well
the bay area has chinese money plus the tech economy
however, a lot of the rationales for the bay area bubble remind me of tokyo in the late 80’s or even manhattan real estate pre 1929 crash
there is an assumption that the economic driver can never turn down or move away
when protestors appeared at the house of a google engineer, that was an important warning to the wealthy in the bay area that they are potential targets if they live in the urban areas
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2014/01/22/activists-target-google-employee-berkeley-resident/
there is a reason that the wealthy generally do not live in urban areas with public transportation links
In our little town on the Peninsula, the number of people right off the boat who don’t speak a word of English would amaze you. It’s definitely the Asian money. At least two or three times a month, we get letters from Chinese realtors representing clients who want to buy in our neighborhood. As Sam Adams pointed out, the huge concentration of high-tech HQs here is an enormous driver. Lastly, the Bay Area is largely built-out. The mountains surrounding the Bay are largely off-limits to building. If you want an affordable new home, you have to commute 90 minutes each way. For those who want a short commute, you pay the Bay Area prices.
The bonus is, if you are within 20 miles of the coast, you get an ideal climate where you can live or play outdoors ten months out of the year, have low heating bills, and almost zero AC bills.
“Immigration is the largest factor. Leading realtor in heart of SillyCon Valley reports three-quarters of purchases are from communist China, etc. Many for all cash. Very few local folks can afford to buy anymore.”
That’s happening in southern California as well. My realtor friends are selling homes for a million dollars cash to foreign nationals, most seem to be from China.
Americans in California are getting priced out of better neighborhoods and are getting driven out of average ones by the onslaught of illegal aliens.