Coastal Currents · September 2026
We slept in a van.
A weekend in Yosemite with a 3 year old and a 1 year old, the swell that red tagged seven homes on Beach Road in Capistrano Beach, and six numbers on San Clemente's August: softer than July, still tighter than last August.
Published by Adam Boehrer, Real Estate Agent, Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty, DRE #02419464.
A Note From Adam
A weekend in Yosemite. Me, my wife, a 3 year old and a 1 year old, in a van.
No cribs. No blackout curtains. No 7pm bedtime, no baths, no routine of any kind. We ate at strange hours and everybody stayed dirty. On paper it should have been a disaster.
It was one of the best weekends we have had.
Why? Because we were with friends who are in the same season we are, working out marriage and young kids at the same time. Nobody was performing. Nobody apologized for a 6am meltdown.
The hard parts did not get easier. They just stopped being scary, because we were doing them next to people who knew exactly what we were in.
Here's the thing. Buying or selling a house is not sleeping in a van in Yosemite. But in small ways there is overlap. Most of what makes it frightening is doing it alone, guessing, hoping you are not missing the thing you do not know to look for. My job is to be the person who asks the right questions, moves the pressure off your plate and onto mine, and walks you through the process start to finish.
What's Happening
Beach Road took a beating.
If you have driven past Capistrano Beach in the last week, you already know.
Hurricane Marie sat hundreds of miles off the coast over Labor Day weekend and sent its swell straight at us. On Beach Road, the oceanfront stretch of Capistrano Beach between Doheny and San Clemente, the water made its way into the houses. Seven have been red tagged. Two more are yellow tagged. At least fourteen took damage. One homeowner watched a sea wall start to go on a Thursday, lost the patio Saturday, and then lost part of the living room. CBS has the footage if you have not seen it.
Crews have been trucking in boulders all week to buy the rest of the block some time, working between tides. The Coastal Commission has had staff on overtime issuing emergency permits.
It comes as a stark reminder of the ocean's power and unpredictability. I don't know what it means for the future of Beach Road homes, but the outlook isn't stellar.
August's Market
San Clemente, August 2026
Six numbers for San Clemente
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106
Homes on the market in August, up from 94 in July and down from 147 a year ago
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2.9 mo
To clear every home for sale at the current pace, against 3.5 months a year ago
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53
New listings came on in August, against 41 homes that closed
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17 days
Median time on market for August closings, up from 9 days in July
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97.3%
Of the last asking price, median, for what sold in August. It was 99% in July
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41
Homes closed in August, against 33 in August of last year
August cooled off, the way August usually does. More homes came on than closed, inventory went from 94 to 106, homes took 17 days to sell instead of 9, and the median home sold at 97.3 percent of its last asking price instead of 99.
Before you read that as the market turning: the median home sold at 97.3 percent of asking in August of last year too. Identical number. What is different is that it took 28 days then and 17 now, and there were 147 homes on the market then against 106 now. So August is softer than July and still tighter than last August. Both of those are true at once.
If you are buying, the useful read is that the summer urgency is out of the market for a few weeks and there is room to negotiate that there was not in June. If you are selling into the fall, the price you choose in week one matters more now than it did then.
One More Thing
Everybody remembers the cheap money. Nobody remembers the terms.
In January of 2021 the 30-year fixed hit 2.65 percent.
Here is what that actually bought you in San Clemente. By March of 2022, the median home in this town was selling for 105 percent of its asking price. On the median sale that is roughly $79,000 over ask, and half of them went higher than that. Six days on the market. One month of inventory in the entire city. You waived the inspection, you wrote the letter, and you lost anyway. Twice, usually, before you won.
Cheap money. Brutal terms.
Last week the 30-year fixed was 6.71 percent. And last month the median San Clemente home sold for 97.3 percent of its last asking price, in 17 days. You get an inspection. You get to ask for repairs. You get to walk away.
Expensive money. Reasonable terms.
I am not telling you which one is better. That depends entirely on you, on your down payment, and on how long you plan to keep the place. What I am telling you is that there has never been a version of this market where you get both. Every market has an upside and a downside, and they trade off against each other. The trick is not waiting for a perfect one, because it is not coming. The trick is knowing which lever you actually get to pull in the one you are standing in.
You can refinance a rate. You cannot renegotiate a price you already paid, and you cannot go back and get the inspection you waived.
Want to know more about navigating this market? Let's talk.
Pass It Along
Know someone who has been waiting it out?
If they have been on the sidelines since 2022 waiting for rates to fix this, the fall is worth a conversation. Forward this along, or send them my way. I'd love to learn more.
San Clemente figures are single-family homes, August 2026, from the California Regional MLS via InfoSparks. Rates from the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. If your property is already listed, this is not intended as a solicitation.