I lived in Irvine in 2000-2002 (well, I worked in Irvine then, lived in Laguna Beach for most of that time). Housing was expensive there, and in Southern California generally, at that time. But this was before the bubble. It was still... affordable expensive, as in, if you had a good job with a relatively high salary you could afford to live there if you wanted to. Then the housing bubble hit... and.... not so much anymore.
I knew that there was an absurd housing bubble because I knew that not enough people make enough money to afford those prices, absent teaser loans or fraud.
