my parents house they bought in coronado when my dad was stationed at north island there during the vietnam war is probably worth 4 million dollars or more now, my dad got sued for some dumb biz dealings his navy buddy got him involved with and had to sell in the 80s,, some arizona dr. owns it and visits on occasion, i'm considering squatting in the back garage once i figure out their vacation schedule.
Currently the dump I bought 19 years ago is supposedly worth 1 million dollars, lol who can buy these places? when i bought in the last gang claimed area of leucadia my friends thought i was nuts, but i wanted a small house and big yard and it has worked out. I used to post some of my house projects on here when we first bought my house, it was nasty when we bought it, leaky roof, moldy carpet, former renter was dealing drugs in the back and renting cots to migrant workers in the front, so we had a lot of late night visits the first year or two, our boxer pit pound dog Kirra and her dobie mix partner taylor were great deterrents and word got out quickly after one late night dog chasing tweaker incidient.
my wife and I lived in one bedroom for 2 months with a bar fridge and microwave and toaster oven and we demoed the whole house and repainted and re-floored everything, then my sister in law moved in and her boyfriend and I redid the roof under the supervision of my roofer friend, new sky lights in every room etc. built a music studio in the garage, patched and repainted the entire exterior,. I never did it to make money i just wanted a place near the ocean and near my work to raise my kids.
I like to get in the ocean on the regular and this is a great place for that, work is 2 songs away on the car stereo and can see the pacific from my job. If you don't need the ocean and don't mind shitty weather then CA is not worth it these days, but I dig it and already put the house in a trust for my kids. California uber alles