Pure speculation and rent seeking doesn't really do anything but leach of someone's else effort. Wealth doesn't appear out of thin air, it was created somehow. In the case of Cupertino, Asian immigrants from the 80s as well as the obvious tech scene made it a desirable place to live. Not everyone just bought property and sat on it just waiting for something to happen, people had to actually make it happen.

I guess if you want to make money as a speculator/rent seeker, you look for people doing things to improve and then take a bet that things will get better than other speculators think. But you are relying on other people doing the work for you, which is risky.

I question how much of the appreciation is the 'community' volunteer efforts when shank-fest parts of Oakland and other places where negative externalities from non-owners dominate yet property owners are experiencing similar wild appreciation rates.

The most dominating recent appreciation in value is the privilege of a coveted fed induced near 0% mortgage. Owners can laugh at the next generation, damning them to essentially pick up the inflationary tab of their negative real rate loans.

The 2.75% mortgages are nationwide. Any differential appreciation is due to the locality (and for the most part not due to geographic realities but cultural/social/economic realities).

In Cupertino, 99.9999% of the appreciation is due to the ultra high-paying jobs there.

Asian immigration had a lot to do with it also, it is basically the Richmond BC of the Bay Area getting to 63%.