San Fransisco's housing prices reflect the high pay available to tech workers living there, sure, but it would still be an extremely attractive place to live wi

San Fransisco's housing prices reflect the high pay available to tech workers living there, sure, but it would still be an extremely attractive place to live without commute reduction as a benefit. Night life, cultural scenes, gorgeous weather, it's an extremely attractive city in its own right. Urban living is extremely attractive to many people who don't have families to fill out sprawling suburban homes. If in-office white collar work collapses totally, I'd expect to see a sudden drop in housing prices as older people who were only living in the city to save on a commute rush out, followed by a delayed correction of people currently living outside of cities because they can't afford them moving in. Prices would likely remain greater than suburbia, but maybe closer to the halfway mark between current city/suburb rent costs. The cities that will be hit hard are the "cities"/glorified suburbs that litter the rest of the Bay Area. They're too expensive to for just the weather, they don't have the attractions of urban life, and basically the only reason to live in, say, Fremont, today is because it cuts your commute in half relative to living on the other side of the hills.