I remembered that both you and I had a discussion with someone who is heavily interested in Bay Area (who probably just never take a look at outside world) on a different thread.

It's kind of been a bust for me - though I haven't invested heavily in it sufficient to draw any major conclusions.

It's a quiet enough town that it hasn't drawn the attention of the big players, but it's being heavily invested in with it being so historic, and its foundational infrastructure easily supports real estate investments.

Consumers love it because gas is cheap and they spend money elsewhere on businesses boosting certain segments of the economy.When gas is 60 to 90 a barrel is typically the sweet spot where there is enough profit for oil companies to keep balance sheets fairly healthy with some profit and consumers pay a certain price per gallon that is not what they would desire but are still comfortable with.Above 90 a barrel the oil companies tend to do very well but the price per gallon of gas rises heavily and economies across the U.S. can be affected greatly.

Most long-time investors would call those the glory days - long before the market became more heavily regulated.

I am all about everyone making money in any deals, but the fund I was in was heavily weighted towards the officers -- 20%+ fee (13% was just the fee to pay the officers!)

The AZ contract, to me, seems heavily in favor of the buyer.

I have 8 SF properties today and would not have been able to do so if I was contributing heavily in my 401k.

Depending upon whether they are a bank or a trust company, custodians are heavily regulated by the IRS, DOL, and possibly the FDIC, State Banking Commissioner, and the Comptroller of the Currency.

It's almost all interest for several years as @Erik Whiting mentioned above.Investors are BRRRRing with very small margins from heavily leveraged positions.