Re: What, exactly, do you mean by "way behind"?
What's going on here with real estate is that once cheap parts of the country and now getting really expensive as well. Florida, for example.
Obviously you can find cheap(er) housing if you want to live in the middle of nowhere but there are downsides to living in the desert. Or even Texas. A lot of the US is, strictly speaking, uninhabitable during parts of the year.
Incidentally, I can't speak for the (overpriced) Bay Area but what's happened in southern Caifornia is that you effectively need a half million for a condo or three quarters for a house at a minimum. Its true that house prices will dip after an earthquake -- this happened with the Northridge one in 1994 -- buit the dip isn't universal and even those areas that were hit badly have recovered.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
