Been involved in residential real estate for 35 years, focused mainly on the Bay Area, New York area, and Hawaii. Can anyone explain to me how there are so many, many properties within 1, 1.5 and 2 hours of Manhattan that cost $550K-$700K (like the one here in Easton, Conn, with a pool.... for $570) and yet in the Bay Area anything within that driving distance would cost north of one million $ (with the possible exceptions of Antioch, Tracey, and Stockton....). I would estimate that, actually, if any of these properties depicted in this article were within 1.5 hours of SF, San Jose, Berkely, or even San Rafael, they would cost double. One hypothesis: salaries for the lower level professional jobs (i.e. not lawyers, stock brokers and accountants, but IT professionals, speech therapists, doctors, fireman, web designers, nurses, etc) are higher in the Bay Area than they are in the greater New York City area. But I have no idea if that is true. I do know that young couples who graduate from the college where I work with decent degrees or certificates get jobs in Silicon Valley or SF (one an IT person, one a nurse or teacher, police or fireman) and immediately start pulling down $200K to $250K. Is that true in Fairfield, New Jersey, or Queens? By the way, it is those two income couples who are buying their starter condos for $1-$1.25 million. And just like my Dad in Berkeley in 1959, their first homes are almost exactly 4-5 times their household annual income.
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@Michael - It might be the property tax in the NYC area. The higher the tax, the lower the price, since buyers often just look at the total payment.
@Michael $200K annual starting salary for a teacher or fireman? Really?
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@Michael I'm not sure how a doctor is a "lower level" professional. An anesthesiologist or surgeon easily makes as much, if not more money than a lawyer or accountant. I don't know why "stock broker" is an upper tier professional, maybe it was in 1980.