$500k in 2010, at the depths of the housing crisis, would have gotten me a little over 1000 sq ft near an oil refinery in the East Bay. It's academic though, since that means a $50-100k down payment, which I could not have saved. Everyone gets hung up on the real estate appreciation in the Bay Area, but forgets that down payments are very hard to save up.
Edit: I wasn't considering condos. Go fee simple or go home.
Condo vs single family home :) I'm over by Tamien station off Minnesota Ave if that provides some context. (I call it the ghetto side of Willow Glen, as if there were such a thing. It's still a lovely neighborhood.)
Actually I know someone who bought a 3 bedroom place 2 miles from Apple's new HQ in 2010 for 650K. They took out an FHA loan for 3% down with a PMI. This was a really smart decision because in 3 years their house value increased to 850K, bringing their loan to value ratio within 0.8 thus allowing them to refinance and get rid of the PMI. They had a monthly PMI of 350 dollars. That amounts to $12,600 extra for 3 years. 17% savings in downpayment amounts to 110,500. So essentially they saved 98K.
I have a 1200 sqft house with a nice yard in a cool neighborhood midway betwen Berkeley and downtown Oakland that we got for under $350k (including some largish repairs & upgrades) around that time. Admittedly we timed it well and property values around here have practically doubled since we bought it, but I think that was partly due to a lack of investment in new construction for a few years following the recession.
Edit: I wasn't considering condos. Go fee simple or go home.