Please enlighten me then, what other types of engineers (of the kind that typically makes 150K) do we still have in SD?

Engineers at Lockheed Martin don’t make that much, if Internet is to be trusted

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Lockheed_Martin_Corp/Salary/by_Job

Median salary of a biotech research scientist in San Diego is $78k

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Research_Scientist%2c_Biotechnology/Salary/by_City

and professors at UCSD don’t approach the 100k mark till full tenure (age 40 or so).

What am I missing?

today it is almost universal that the educated buyer is married to a another high-earner (150+150=300 ==> 1M mortgage + 20% down ==> rational sustainable entry-level price of 1.2)

One more thing about engineers – they tend to be predominantly male. So, the idea of a typical engineer making 150K is merely far-fetched, but the idea of a typical educated DINK couple making 300k borders on science fiction.