Six of the ten most expensive home markets are in California. Of those six, two ar ein NoCal, four are in SoCal. I guess this is no surprise. What was actually more shocking to me was how cheaply you could get a home in other parts of the country. I recently went to Minot, ND and it's really not a bad place to live. For 129K you can get a 4 bedroom, 2200 sq ft house.