This phenomenon is not peculiar to super-heated markets like Silicon Valley. We've had several people cold-visit us to see if they can buy our house, and I live

This phenomenon is not peculiar to super-heated markets like Silicon Valley. We've had several people cold-visit us to see if they can buy our house, and I live in Hamilton, a mid-sized Southern Ontario city around 90 km west of Toronto. Our real estate market has certainly picked up over the past several years (after decades of being severely undervalued), but median house prices are still less than half of what you pay closer to Toronto.