Both are happening. Eventually, prices will be cheap enough for those biotech and Qualcomm and surgeon positions to be filled, and people will return.
San Diego will not be a ghost town. It is a city with a negative population growth and no new business prospects. Putting us back to 2000 population figures doesn’t make us a ghost town.
Perhaps the recession and population decline will entice Sacramento to bring some business friendly regulation back to our state, and employers will start moving here. With cheaper housing prices by 2010, why not?