The stock market hit all time highs during the pandemic while the economy is in shambles. Why? Because there's a lot of cheap money chasing those assets, and it's going to stay that way for a long while. Therefore, those house prices may still nominally rise or at least stay stable, even while they're losing value.

You have to look at it in terms of opportunity cost. What else could you have bought for that money? If prices rise in SF only because of inflation, prices rise even faster in those places where there's a real increase in demand.