I think raptorduck gives a solid indication of the high end of the market in the Bay Area. I know some officers of various companies that have made recent purchases (one in Los Altos, the other in Hillsborough). But the big wealth buyers have never been the issue in the Bay Area.
I think what would be considered the “middle market”–600,000-1 million, is running pretty slow (at least in Sunnyvale). Folks aren’t interested in paying that for a 1200 sq ft home that sold for $400,000 back in 2003, especially if they have 2 kids.
Google is slowing its hiring. The VMware stock drop and the yahoo layoffs are the hot topic of conversation. My friend was going to rent a townhome (again rentals are lagging behind sales price) from a yahoo couple, but with the upcoming layoffs, they’re thinking about selling and leaving the state.
Folks who have been exercising their options are keeping prices reasonably solid in the mid-Peninsula. But google has definitely lowered the size of its option grants since 2005, so it’s hard to say if there will be an immediate wave of new google wealth anytime soon.
