If you are wondering if we are in a bubble, consider this:

Some 20+ years ago the internet became mainstream and changed our world. The only thing was, consumer behavior didn’t really adapt to all the technology and for a great majority of people, technology and the internet meant email more than the post office, texting instead of phone calls and Facebook and Twitter instead of the Nightly News.  Well, maybe that is oversimplifying, but you get the idea.  We weren’t taking advantage of all that the internet and technology offered.  Then a worldwide pandemic hit and we were all forced to adjust to isolation and working from home went mainstream.

Our median home prices have surpassed the previous highs of ’05-'07 and the average sales price is almost there - next month will hit it I’m sure!

Within a short few months, office workers had adapted, companies pivoted and remote working was embraced with, in many cases, no loss of productivity and even an improvement in overall job satisfaction and production.

The result is a massive shift in lifestyle to living where you want to live regardless of where the office is. Montecito, in particular, and Santa Barbara, in general, have made the short-list of cities where people who can now live anywhere want to live permanently.

Consumer behavior has changed and I believe we are just at the beginning of a massive shift in lifestyle where our homes will become the center of our lives in a way that we have not experienced in several generations.