So far I've been looking in the Ferndale/Royal Oak area...

Simple $1 chocolate chip brownies.

While it may not have the upper income demographics of the prominent northern suburbs, it also isn't South Dallas, South Oak Cliff, or Pleasant Grove in terms of crime, safety, or desirability.

These examples are hardware and chip related segments of "tech", but there are software, development and other segments of tech that are going strong.When the last real estate bubble burst, there were many "quiet layoffs" going on in the tech industry that were never widely reported. 

My initial thought is to take a look at the northwest area: West Oak Lane, Wadsworth, Mt.

I prefer the real stuff.The engineered cannot be sanded and refinished because it only has a thin layer of real wood on top.The real stuff can last forever, but I guess that doesn't matter much if you're selling.I've always been able to find some nice prefinished oak for under $3/sq.

What did you use as a bargaining chip?  

The sun’s rays were cascading through the gothic-looking pin oaks.

for the remaining 465 floors I had considered the following:Wood, oak, first class, natural type.

Chip @ Apple Valley Builders has doing a ton of work for me.