How would you make money ?

[Concillian]

I think California real-estate is insane, BTW.  I looked at houses around Palo Alto (near our corporate headquarters), and the smallest little cracker box house on a 50' x 50' lot was selling for 1.5 to 2 million.  I think the secret would be to get a nice conversion van, work hard earning the big bucks, live out of your van for a few years, then move to Georgia, or northern Arkansas and retire.

Palo Alto is RICH-VILLE. A co-worker told me of a house near him that was about the same size as mine (1300-1400 square feet) in a not particularly great location (bordering an apartment complex) listed for 900k, sold for 1.3 mil. Yes, that's insane. You just have to realize that you aren't going to be able to buy a house in these locations. You don't have to get too far away from Palo Alto for the same size house to get well under half what they are in Palo Alto. Even then, things are expensive though.

But don't base all of CA real-estate off of Palo Alto. That would be like basing all state murder rates off New Jersey :D