San Francisco is about to be overrun by thousands upon thousands of newly minted millionaires. They will run up and down the streets with money cascading out of their pockets as they giddily embark on post-IPO buying benders. They will snatch up houses in all cash. Buy luxury boats. Throw lavish parties, adorned with elaborate ice sculptures and full of A-list celebrities. Generally, this will be the moment that finally makes it impossible for you to live here.

At least, that’s what you would you think if you’ve read media coverage of this year’s expected IPO rush in Silicon Valley. The panic generally started with an ever-dramatic headline in the NYT a few weeks ago: “Thousands of New Millionaires Are about to Eat San Francisco Alive” (apparently later changed to be only slightly less intense). The piece blazed its way through our Twitter and Facebook feeds, leaving those of us not poised to strike it rich from an IPO in the coming months distraught over what we were now convinced would be the tipping point that causes the already horrific cost of living here to go over the brink of insanity.

“Here comes the big one!” the NYT shouted at us with an exclamation point.

To summarize for those who managed to avoid the article, and the general consensus in the press, it argues that because a slew of popular tech companies like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Slack, and Pinterest will likely go public this year, SF will soon drown in a sea of ultra-wealthy who will cause a ruckus in every part of our lives. “Seemingly the whole city — and not just the financial planners and the real estate agents and the protesters who block tech buses — is scrambling to prepare,” it reads.

To put it lightly, since that piece was published, people have been freaking out.

Odd, I thought, since it wasn’t actually clear people were preparing or panicking for the so-called “wave of new millionaires” before the article. What is clear: they definitely started to do so after it ran.

To put it lightly, since that piece was published, people have been freaking out. The frenzy even caused an emergency SF Board of Supervisors meeting. Realtors I spoke with told me buyers started calling them stressing out about whether they should hurry up and buy before they’re ready just to beat this new rush of rich kids. Sellers, too, rethought their plans — those once ready to put their home on their market are now reconsidering holding off with promises of getting more money later.

“I’ve received calls from clients who are extremely anxious — I’m not kidding, they are really stressed out after reading the article,” said local realtor Eileen Bermingham. “It’s this looming new source of stress and fear. There is an unnecessary hysteria happening.”

I mean, I definitely get it. Living here is rough enough as it is. Imagining even more hoards of new millionaires treating SF’s housing market like a candy (or Apple?) store is not a pretty picture. But I couldn’t help but think there was a lot missing from the story.

So I decided to look into it. I started out by contacting Robert Chislett, founder of Chisel-it (clever), an ice sculpting business in the Bay Area. In one of the more intriguing parts of the NYT article, he was referred to in the story as “the IPO ice sculptor,” and quoted as saying he’s “getting ready to staff up for what he says will be a long year” and “it’s going to be a lot of 14-hour days,” seemingly in preparation for the IPO rush.

Twitter found the ice sculptor tidbit one of the best parts of the piece. As did I. So, I decided to pay Chislett a visit to his Concord warehouse, a small industrial space filled with massive ice blocks stacked throughout.

Sounds like you’re going to be busy with these IPOs, I said to him. He laughed, looking a bit uncomfortable. I quickly learned the piece (and its reaction) left him really confused.

Sure, he told me, he has worked with many tech companies, but that’s just one segment of his business — and he wasn’t referring to the IPO rush when he said he was gearing up for a busy time. He’s been planning on expanding his business and warehouse this year anyway, unrelated to anything in tech. In fact, he’s unsure he’s ever done an ice sculpture for an IPO party.

“I’ve been contacted by a bunch of media outlets, even from the Netherlands, since that story ran,” he said. “It’s been odd and pretty crazy.”

Huh, a lot of drama, without much substance. How much of the rest of this is storyline is the same?

Turns out that a lot of people are throwing a side-eye toward all of this hype. I’ve spent the past few weeks talking to people in tech, real estate and finance who largely agree: it’s possible SF could see some impact from the IPOs, but it’s also very possible that it won’t.

Let’s all take a breath and look at some facts.