Two San Diego women have created an app for travelers that’s gaining a sizable following of nomadic young people living out of vans.
Inspired by a social media phenomenon, Breanne Acio, a former San Diego State University lecturer, and public relations worker Jessica Shisler teamed up in 2018 to pave the way for the drifter movement known online as “vanlife.” They created a mobile application, aptly called The Vanlife App, that’s just secured the two women spots in a competitive Techstars accelerator program for promising startups.
The app currently connects longterm travelers with one another while on the road, solving the problem of loneliness that weighs on this group of individuals. The downside of a nomadic lifestyle is that you have no community, Shisler said.
“You’re constantly in places you don’t know and around people you don’t know,” Shisler said. “You’re never a local.”
For those who haven’t heard of it, “vanlife” refers to a recent bohemian trend of people buying cargo vans, old ambulances, school buses and other boxy vehicles, and converting them into livable apartments on wheels (think of it as a do-it-yourself RV). Many vanlifers are also “digital nomads” who work remotely online, such as freelance writers, software developers, or content creators. With no strings tying them to specific cities or towns, they wander from destination to destination for months on end.
With our tight inventory and ultra-low mortgage rates, it kinda feels like Tesla stock. One minute you’re in the $800s, and the next thing you know, the same house is in the $900s!
What can buyers do?
Buy location.
Don’t buy crap.
Simple enough, right?
But it’s hard to accomplish both, because the best locations have the oldest homes.
Let’s narrow it down further.
If you can afford a decent location, what else can a buyer do to ensure a smart purchase?
Buy a newer home, and/or buy a one-story home.
Newer: Homes built in the last 15 years typically have modern floor plans with a large open great room and lots of windows that allow for ample natural light. When you go to sell it someday, it will still be a desirable home without a load of upgrading or maintenance costs to you.
One-Story: Boomers aging in place guarantee that the scant supply of one-story homes will stay tight, and those that do leak onto the open market will be hotly contested.
Here’s a good example.
This sold for $850,000 two years ago, and after a complete remodel it goes on the market for $1,149,000…..and they get multiple offers. Those who thought they could still buy a nice house in Old La Costa in the $800,000s are really scratching their heads now! But it had the good location, and the sellers added the new look to clinch a nice boost in value.
If you want to stick with a newer house and/or a single-story house, what are your chances?
Price Range
# Listings
# Built Since 2005
# One-Story
# One-Story Built Since 2005
0 – $1M
28
5
6
0
$1M – $2M
184
45
42
6
$2M – $3M
163
42
54
8
$3M+
266
100
79
24
Buying a newer home or a single-story really looks daunting now, but if you can pull it off, you got it made!
Insisting on a newer home and/or a one-story home will give you maximum assurance that you’ve made a smart buy that will appreciate better than the rest. We can add a few older homes that have been thoroughly remodeled, but they probably still have a floor plan cut up into smaller rooms with low ceilings.
The same buyer who qualified for a $810,000 loan amount just 15 months ago can now borrow $1,000,000 and get the same monthly payment – a whopping 23% increase!
More evidence of the local listing count plunging….and seller price expectations rising!
The top 20 toughest housing markets includes a diverse geographic mix of larger established metros and up-and-comers where housing is still relatively affordable. They are concentrated in three regions of the country — eight metros from the West, six from the Midwest and six from the Northeast. None of the markets are located in the South, which dominates the list of top 20 easiest markets to find a home.
California led the national list of toughest housing markets, with six of the top 20 toughest markets coming from the state. Ohio followed with three markets — Columbus, Cincinnati and Akron — making the top 20 toughest markets list.
The scarcity of homes is reflected in the market prices, and the trend in most of the toughest markets is toward even fewer homes for sale. The average median listing price for the top 20 toughest markets was $480,830 in January, 40 percent higher than the average median price of the top 100 largest markets. In addition, 17 of the top 20 toughest markets began 2020 with double-digit annual declines in available inventory, with a handful of markets seeing more than a 30 percent drop, including San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City and San Diego.
Our January sales count of detached-homes between La Jolla and Carlsbad was impressive, and comparable to the good old days!
NSDCC January Sales & Listings
Year
# of Sales
Median SP
Avg. Cost-per-sf
# of New Jan. Listings
2013
185
$845,000
$379/sf
410
2014
182
$1,072,500
$501/sf
413
2015
166
$1,221,500
$511/sf
405
2016
171
$1,092,000
$553/sf
471
2017
175
$1,180,000
$518/sf
394
2018
151
$1,320,000
$573/sf
426
2019
152
$1,300,000
$532/sf
419
2020
183
$1,430,000
$607/sf
339
In spite of all-time record pricing, the number of January listings really dried up, compared to previous Januarys – and 40% of last month’s listings are already pending or sold. How you feel about the inventory shortage depends somewhat on your price range too – here is the recent history:
NSDCC Number of January Listings by Price Range
Year
# Under-$1M
$1M – $2M
$2M – $3M
Over $3M
2013
186
123
50
56
2014
159
150
56
57
2015
138
162
50
62
2016
128
205
85
70
2017
101
163
71
71
2018
69
206
86
69
2019
74
201
66
85
2020
45
157
74
73
For those hoping to buy a house priced under a million, the dwindling number of listings is daunting. But the inventory over $1,000,000 has been relatively stable – no big surge there.
I have to hand it to Brett and team in their preparation of this 1975-built home in Solana Beach. The flooring was removed downstairs, and they added a heavy epoxy paint to the exposed-concrete, which gave it a trendy-hip look to go with the colorful formica in the kitchen:
The list price is $1,850,000, and they already have four offers!
A rare find and great for multi-gen! This 5br/4ba, 3,708sf home has two master suites – one on each floor! Fully remodeled with dual-pane windows, dual-zone HVAC, tankless W/H, hardwood floors, Craftsman kitchen, new paint, new garage door (with its own mobile app), whole-house water filtration, owned solar system with 220 outlet for your car charger, plus a full blown PANORAMIC OCEAN VIEW overlooking the Torrey Pines Reserve – wow!
When it comes to the most sought-after aging-in-place projects, bathrooms dominate the top spot.
In a recent NAHB survey of remodelers, more than eight out of 10 reported that installing grab bars (89%), higher toilets (85%) and curbless showers (82%) were the most common aging-in-place projects.
Widening doorways, the next most-common project on the list, came in at a distance 59%.
Even though the underlying motivation seems similar in both cases, walk-in bathtubs have not become nearly as common as curbless showers. Only 12% of remodelers reported installing walk-in tubs.
When NAHB began asking aging-in-place remodeling questions in 2004, curbless showers were about as common as wider doorways. But over the years, the share of NAHB remodelers installing curbless showers has grown from 54% to 82%.
We are cooking now – we had another 58 new pendings this week, and the 82 new listings were less than expected. You know the market is heating up when other agents are talking about it at open house!
