The New Gold Diggers: Private equity rushes to battered Silicon Valley real estate

California's Silicon Valley feels like a ghost town, a high-tech version of a deserted gold mining camp, another boom-bust historical artifact of the Golden State. But unlikely as it may seem, there is a group of gold differs who are descending on Silicon Valley - private equity real estate funds. A handful of hopefuls are putting together first-time funds designed to capitalize on the real estate fallout brought about by the collapse of the high-tech community. The plan, quite simply, is to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from investors for so-called "tech-wreck" funds, and then use that money to snap up distressed properties throughout the Bay Area at bargain prices. Whether they will hit pay dirt - or come up empty handed - is still uncertain.