Northern CaliforniaCalifornia

A New Home Alternative to Your Hovel

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Dean Wehrli

January 17, 2018

Coastal California home prices have skyrocketed, creating great opportunities for homeowners to cash out and move to a smaller, nicer home. Check out this news clip featuring Dean Wehrli on the trend toward surban™ living.

Here are some of Dean’s comments:

  • Builder profitability: “The land’s very, very expensive. Honestly, builders have to pop up the density a little bit sometimes to make it work.”

  • Demographic shifts: “Some of those older buyers—they don’t want the yard. They want the lower-maintenance kind of home.”

  • Small parties: “It’s for that get-together with your friends, not the big backyard barbecue with the whole neighborhood.”

  • Nearby entertainment: “They’re going to meet their friends at the club or the bar or something like that.”

  • Shared outdoor spaces: “They can provide that public outdoor space in lieu of that private outdoor space that the high-density product can’t always deliver or doesn’t want to deliver.”

  • Value proposition: “They (Coastal homeowners) live in a hovel with no yard for ($1.5 million).”

For more information on surban living or for our white paper on urban infill pricing, contact Dean Wehrli.

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About The Author

Dean Wehrli
Principal
Dean helps housing sector clients figure out not just what might work and what might not, but why.

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