Where is the California "Pot o' Gold"?

And how do I get my hands on some of it? First of all -I'm real estate crazy right now. I spend hours a day studying the market and trying to figure out where to live. Let me give you a brief summary of what is on the market: 

1. places in the city are either $1+ million USD (I've never seen so many of these outside of Monaco) for about 1,600 square feet (150 square meters)
   
2. or a half million dollar crack houses that haven't been repaired or updated since the 60s -if you're lucky
   
3. or you can go half an hour (up to 2 hours) away "the commute" to pay much more reasonable prices ($400,000 and up) for really nice brand new homes
   

I'm not fond of commutes and with fuel prices soaring this week I don't know how people can afford it. The photo above shows the 'cheap' stuff starting at $4.11, that was Monday. You know it is starting to get bad when a camera crew arrives at the local gas station. 

Well, that was Monday and today I nearly swerved off the road when I saw this: 

By the way you should know that it would be wise to take a large wallet of cash because if you pay by credit card they charge you an additional .10 cents a gallon. Most people here drive LARGE trucks and I don't know how much longer they can afford to. So, I'm more determined than ever to find a small ex-drug den in the city -I hear that the 60s style modern is coming back!

P.S. My new theory on the California Pot o' Gold is that most own stock in big oil companies -what do you think?

The Hunt and the Headstone...

Ok, I have a confession to make: I've been hard at work trying to find a house in southern California. This is one tough and expensive market. In fact I've made an offer on a house and the counter offer came in at $100,000 MORE than asking! I want to know who has this kind of money?! What fantastic paying jobs do these people have??

I'm looking for a small old house with character that needs some love. I'm finding that that is a tall order around here especially with all the house flippers around here. You can't toss a cat around here without hitting a house that has "GRANITE COUNTER TOPS AND STAINLESS STEEL APPLIANCES." What is the attraction of this combination and why is it that EVERY kitchen that has been redone is redone this way? In my opinion it says nothing of the quality of the stone nor of the appliances.

On a side note: aren't gravestones made of granite?