From a 1981 (!!) New York Times Article titled “Changing San Francisco is foreseen as a haven for wealthy and childless”:
A major reason for the exodus of the middle class from San Francisco, demographers say, is the high cost of housing, the highest in the mainland United States. Last month, the median cost of a dwelling in the San Francisco Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area was $129,000, according to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Washington, D.C. The comparable figure for New York, Newark and Jersey City was $90,400, and for Los Angeles, the second most expensive city, $118,400.
”This city dwarfs anything I’ve ever seen in terms of housing prices,” said Mr. Witte. Among factors contributing to high housing cost, according to Mr. Witte and others, is its relative scarcity, since the number of housing units has not grown significantly in a decade; the influx of Asians, whose first priority is usually to buy a home; the high incidence of adults with good incomes and no children, particularly homosexuals who pool their incomes to buy homes, and the desirability of San Francisco as a place to live.
$129,000 in 1981 dollars is $360,748 in 2019 dollars.
in theory 
The interest rate in 1981 was 20% — and even higher a year later.