fprez,
hahha, comparing chicago to san diego is like comparing apples to donuts. Basing an expectation of a housing price correction based upon prices in Chicago is therefore absurd.

I am from chicago and would never ever consider going back to the midwest winter wonderland, no way, no how, and I am certain many others are willing to earn less just to enjoy the better weather in SD, so price comparisons are consequently meaningless. Case in point, I just drove down to bay park today to pick up some fresh sword fish with my convertible top down, you simply can’t put a price on that!

In addition, job opportunities for me and the pay is vastly better out here than in the winter wonderland.
thus, for someone such as myself, in addition to the vastly superior weather, I can live better in SD than chicago and have much better career ops, there is simply no way I’d live in Lincoln park or whatever snooty hood you consider upscale in Chicago.

lastly, long term, if you really want to compare cities, I think San diego is similar to the bay area because both have a highly desirable location and a superior high tech industry with electronics and biotech leading the way. Chicago has alot going for it, but nothing in the way of desirable location or technology base, it’s essentially a rust belt city. At some point in the future, san diego home prices will reflect bay area prices.