It must be the fault of the urban growth boundary
"We sold our 500-square-foot New York apartment, and with the money, we bought a house with a swimming pool, two cars, and had enough left to open a restaurant"
(-- Vitaly Paley, quoted in the New York Times)
After all, why else would property prices in the cheapest major west coast city in North America suddenly shoot up? It's not as if anyone pays attention to housing prices in the other (2 to 3 times as expensive) major west coast cities, or if they would gravitate to a city where people making < US$170,000/year actually have a fighting chance to afford a house. No, no, it's gotta be the Urban Growth Boundary.