If you want to RIP in Silicon Valley, you had better score that IPO. Northern California's high-tech economic boom has already caused housing prices to rocket. Now graveyard real estate is following suit - with four-person burial plots in San Mateo's Skylawn Memorial Park going for $265,000.

While plots in other local graveyards were significantly cheaper, all were showing a sharp upward trend, according to reports.

It's demand, like anything else," Mr John Milne, director of family services at San Jose's Oak Hill Memorial Park said. "You can buy a cemetery lot in Iowa for $100. Here, the average price is about $3,400."

A survey of local graveyards found that at Oak Hill, a plot which sold for $1,250 in 1987 was valued recently at $3,720. At Chapel of the Chimes in nearby Hayward, a plot worth $2,500 in 1987 is now worth more than $12,000.