Rental property is ridiculously high our here. I just saw a local news segment tonight about the rapid recent decrease in commercial rental rates and "luxury" homes. San Francisco was a home to several big dot com boom-bust companies. Some were paying as much as $130/sq. ft. for prime office space. While that was short lived - some firms actually paid in that range. Prime office space is now around $30/sq. ft. - still a lot (calculate monthly rent on a typical small office - say 3000 sq. ft.). There is a surplus of office space now in the Bay Area as many developers rushed to build expensive office complexes when prices were high. Many are complete and sit empty with no tenants yet.
The news story also stated that houses in the $1mill and up price range were seeing huge reductions in price - about 40% in some developments. I remember 2-3 years ago when the house next to mine sold for $50k over the asking price with multiple bids and in about 3 days. - Times they are a changing.
Sad times.