Any Homes Left Under $100,000?

Not a whole lot in previously affordable California desert country, it seems. Median price of a home in the Coachella Valley, near Palm Springs, has zoomed well past the $300,000 mark. The "key trend" of 2004 -- rapid disappearance of homes priced under $100,000, say local agents. The buyers, of course, are not locals; they're the investor wannabes from LA, San Diego, Orange County and the Bay Area.

"We're still a big bargain for people compared to the prices in those areas," Alan Abell, a sales agent with the Palm Desert office of Dyson & Dyson, told a local paper.