[fusionstorm]

IMO, it's more like a ballon this time around than a bubble. It won't "pop" like in 2008-2009, simply b/c there's still so many people with $100K+ salary jobs working for companies that are highly profitable. For everyone pointing to the Web 3.0 companies trying to produce the next big app or SaaS product, there's also huge numbers of people working for highly profitable companies like Google, Apple, Oracle, Facebook, etc. that aren't going to be hitting the unemployment lines when the next economic downturn hits.

Will markets further from the San Francisco/Peninsula/Silicon Valley core see housing values drop when demand slows? Of course. But communities either near restos/culture/nightlife (San Francisco, and to a lesser extent Oakland and Berkeley) and/or close to the high paying, successful companies (most of the Bay Area that touches or is a city over from the waters of San Francisco Bay) aren't going to see dramatic drops in value IMO.

Full disclosure - I say this as someone who bought a duplex here in Feb 2014, then sold it in May of this year for 30% higher than my original purchase price.