HHH. I know you are not referring to me as a google-gazillionaire. I work for a living. And that price range, as you can imagine, is the very very low end of high end or the high end of ordinary up here. Indeed, your comment is what makes it so different up here. Don’t mistake different for better.

That price range will buy me my version of a dream house in SD, but not here. The size you mention is what I am finding in SD, not here, unless you are talking South San Jose. The few 5k+ sf homes I have found in Los Altos/Los Altos hills are in two categories, (i) in my price range, but on small lots with the extra square footage in the form of a finished basement, or (ii) way out of my league.

Google folks are not the only folks that drive prices here and force us to lower our expectations so much, though the high level Google folks have had a lot to do with price stabalization and increases in Atherton, Woodside, Portala Valley, and even Los Altos Hills.

Either way, I would like to point out that I did not disagree with your post. You were spot on. I was just saying, it could be worse. Here you get 1/2 the house than you do in SD with 1/10th the weather. Nuff said.