The only place within an hour of Palo Alto where this might have been true is East Palo Alto. It's adjacent to PA. It is still a somewhat dangerous community.

That's changing. Prices in EPA are now >50% of equivalent housing in PA, and rising rapidly through the same processes that have given us $1.7 million starter homes elsewhere in the Bay Area.

There's really nowhere within an hour of PA that has home prices even 50% of PA, much less 25%. Three hours, maybe.