Ups & Downs by Patrick Carlisle

For 30+ years, the counties in the Bay Area have followed similar trend lines in home price appreciation, though the magnitude of their individual ups and downs varied in each cycle.

After the 1980’s boom, came the 1989 earthquake and the recession. In the mid-1990’s, a market recovery began which became progressively more feverish through the height of the dotcom frenzy in 2000. After the dotcom bubble popped, appreciation slowed before accelerating again in the years of the “big bubble”, when less expensive markets appreciated far more due to subprime lending practices. All areas saw precipitous price declines after the 2008 markets crash, but counties hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis saw terrible drops of up to 60%. Then, in 2012, the latest high-tech boom, with its huge surge in hiring and new-wealth creation fueled another dramatic Bay Area recovery, with those markets closest to the heart of the boom soaring to new peak values.

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