I think that what’s being missed in this discussion is that it’s just not possible to reason our way to a conclusion about the relative worth of different places. You can talk about “glamour city” status, weather, jobs, culture, zoning laws, etc until you are blue in the face; only the invisible hand has the power to track ALL the relevant factors in play. And the best way to see what the invisible hand has to say is by looking at rents. Have rents gone up in So-Cal at a faster rate percentage-wise in recent years than the rest of the US? I don’t know the answer, but I doubt it. In any case I think this is really the only way to answer the question.
