If you track the last couple of CA real estate climbs, they tend to really ramp up hard the last couple of years before they burst. Having lived through them, I can tell you that it’s mostly everyone wanting to get in on the appreciation. It’s all everyone talks about at party’s and work. This one was really different in that the loan business started to give anyone that could fog a mirror a “no money down” loan. So everyone got into the game.
Having gone to Houston and Dallas on work related trips, I’ve seen new developments selling houses at very low prices. They just keep moving the housing developments further out from the city centers. But land is dirt cheap there. In 2004 I saw new 3/2 SFR’s going for $180K that were about 30 minutes from Houstons’ city center. But the very swanky Galleria area had many homes for $1M.