There is a pretty good paper which runs through the outcomes of Loma Prieta (1989) quake: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/loma_prieta/comerio.htmlBasically, single family people got a lot of help.

I live in Japan now and although there was a serious earth quake and tsunami this year, real estate in Tokyo is still profitable in income gain.

Maybe when the next quake that hit us, it's just a matter of when at this point, our sky-high prices will come down to earth.  

It is very wrong (apart from just a crappy deal for you) and is wrought with circumstances that could get very nasty.

I’ve watched this geologist get pretty good at forecasting quakes.

Although most Californians have experienced a small quake, most have never personally experienced a strong one.

I've lived through the Cuban missle crisis, the assassination of John Kennedy, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the assassination of Martin Luther KIng, the Cold War, the "Jump the Shark" of Fonzi, the gas lines of the early 1970's, the Watergate crisis, the end of Gilligan's Island, hyper inflation, Jimmy Carter's "Malaise", race riots, hurricanes, earth quakes, 9/11, 2000 crash, 2008 crash, good grief, I can't go on, too many to mention.Yep, the economy survived, I'm still here, the world moved on ( except for walkmans now selling for $32,000) and nowhere was I promised a free ride or an easy life.As they say in "Men in Black" "Kay: "There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they do not know about it!"

If an earth quake resulted in an injury (or worse) to a tenant, what level of liability falls on the property owner? 

I thought we were going to go to the airport.. nope follow him a few hundred more yards to a massive gate made of wrought iron and art work.. it opens and we drive up onto a PAVED 4000 foot lighted runway on his property.. and over to his two 100/100 hangers were he had a few million in airplanes..

It'll remain there for another year.Still quaking in my boots about the rates spiking up.