in 1984. Just a few years ago, there was a story that went national about a tear-down in West Seattle that went for $1M. The tear-down is exactly what happened, and they made money! Right now there isn't enough on the market to meet demand here. Houses are going for more than their asking price on a regular basis. We have benefitted from this demand personally with purchase and sale of not only our house but commercial property as well. LA and SF are even more pronounced.

That demand has a downside, too. It contributes to the overall housing crisis and increase in homelessness. Just getting into the market is a bitch for a young person, which is one reason why the housing growth is expanding rapidly in a city like Tacoma, where we live now, with also the resulting displacement. (Local businesses actually just supported a tax INCREASE in the city to build more affordable housing to help solve the problem.) Even with that, the Tacoma/Pierce County area has the most rapidly growing real estate market in the country, but nowhere close to LA and SF. This story is nuts. Like I said, $1.4M is hardly outside the norm in these states.