The only real explanation I can come up with is that maybe she lived through the Great Depression.

BUT...it might be that you have that really nice 2 1/2" bead board that was popular from 1880 up until Great Depression.

As a super-depressing slightly unrelated reference point....

I still get depressed about the people I knew who lost everything in the last crash.

I can tell you what I have found on the NON tourist side of the Island is very depressing. 

The great depression crash was 7 or 8 years for full recovery. 

Going deeper, there is a ton of data backing the fact that the SF real estate market performs quite strong, historically speaking.The 2008 crash was quite abnormal in is scale, and was greater than any other downtown going back to the Great Depression. 

The Detroit market is so depressed right now that I wouldn't be surprised if you were able to quadruple your money over the next 10-20 years when the market recovers. 

I'm open to turnkey and depressed small multi-family properties.

Maybe the sub $150k condos don't look as nice and don't have an ocean view but to see such a HUGE range in prices tells me there is something else unique to these cheaper priced condo's that causes their prices to remain depressed.