I grew up in the Mountain View/Los Altos (off San Antonio Road and Foothill Expressway) area, and can attest that there are huge differences in the quality of the various communities just in Santa Clara county.
There really is no comparison between parts of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto to, say, Sunnyvale, San Jose or Milpitas. However, prices per square foot in even in some of the rattier parts of Sunnyvale and San Jose are holding steady at around $700/sf.
You get up into Marin County and the prices can climb upwards of $900/sf in Greenbrae, Larkspur and Millbrae. These towns are not upscale like Sausalito, but command very high prices due to the “Marin County” cachet.
While I agree that the SF/Bay Area is probably no different than LA, Orange County or San Diego, prices there have shown a surreal ability to defy gravity over the years. That is not to say they won’t come down, or haven’t come down in the past (they have), just that they are remarkably sticky on the way down.
