We all know the cost of living is high on the Central Coast.
While home prices here may seem unattainable - we took a closer look at how some people are buying a second home to get slice of paradise, at a fraction of the price.
“Second home ownership is here to stay," said Whitney Curry, PacasoChief Marketing Officer. "We as a society by a pretty fundamental change of how we do work and how we do home. The ability to work from home is that more people than ever are desiring to have a primary location and a secondary home.”
Though prices are increasing, the desire to own a second or luxury home hasn’t faded - especially in sought after areas along the Central Coast.
Some buyers are now turning to fractional ownership, where six to eight people, create an LLC to purchase a home together.
That’s where the company Pacaso comes in - to facilitate the sale and manage the property.
“With Pacaso, we’ve been able to meet that demand and provide a solution that makes better use of our existing housing stock through co-ownership,” said Curry.
Cal Poly graduate turned real estate expert, Kate Hendrickson, calls this is a creative way to widen the pool of buyers looking for luxury real estate.
"It isn't a new concept. Pacaso has just taken that and put it on a platform. It streamlines the process - and they take it from acquisition and management of that property after that acquisition. So they’ve really just put it into a nice little box,” said Hendrickson.
“A lot of people think, oh I’d love to have a second home in Aspen, or in Tahoe, or even in the Edna Valley, but I don’t have $4 million to spend. This is really giving them the opportunity to enter into these markets and have an ownership stake in a beautiful luxury home,” Hendrickson said.
But not everyone’s on board.
Many opponents are comparing it to a timeshare of sorts in their neighborhood.
Brad Day started researching Pacaso when a home on his street was listed on its site - and helped initiate the effort called'Stop Pacaso Now.'
“It’s really 'corporatizing' residential America. And before you know it, you’ve lost that sense of community, and that's a really, really hard thing to get back.”
He and his neighbors are now trying to stop the effort through organized protests, a Change.org petition and contacting local governments.
"if you are trying to raise a family - or you’re trying to have this sense of community - and you have a house or several houses that are just kind of like a rotating door of people coming in and out - that’s not a community, that’s just a glorified hotel,” said Day.
But Hendrickson offers another perspective, saying there is a place in the industry for this sort of business model.
Hendrickson said, “Pacasso tends to focus that are in high demand for second home housing - and the Central Coast is certainly one of those areas.”
“I think really where the platform can shine, is in areas like this where there’s no CC&Rs, there’s no restrictions, and there are no people that you’re impacting with this turnover,“ said Hendrickson.
