It's a two sided coin. Live in a good neighborhood long enough and you get rewarded. Same thing happened to my parents home. They downsized and moved into a smaller place but in a more quaint part of the city. Below is ... or was my neighborhood, where I lived up until about a year ago, near San Francisco. The homes you see closest were built in the 1950s and are single level. Our place was directly across the main street there, much smaller two story homes built across two crescents in 1978. You cannot buy anything below seven figures in this neighborhood and it's not anything special. In fact, we always had to deal with water drainage problems in the crawlspace and the construction of the house was very cheap. The only reason we could afford it is because most of the funding came from a 1031 property that has been in the family in Honolulu since 1922. I live in a condo now and are much happier for it being unmarried. Anyways, I thought the homes in La Jolla near the shore there were in the 4-18 million range? Could be wrong. If I had to live in San Diego, I'd go live south of the city in the hood. Helped out a teacher that lives there and I like it there, some genuine good people, although certainly below middle class. But then again I come from humble beginnings.