I own, remodel, and rent in San Diego. I started The 5018 because the depth I wanted on SD real estate was hard to find: specific homes, neighborhoods, and development, analyzed honestly by someone with no commission riding on what you decide.
Buying & Owning
A 134-item code update sounds like something you can safely skip, and for most homeowners, most of it is. The 2026 Land Development Code Update, which the San Diego City Council approved unanimously on May 11, 2026, is largely housekeeping (e.g. typo fixes, table footnotes, definitions brought in
Buying & Owning
You've probably heard that renting is throwing money away, and that buying is always the smarter move. It's the most repeated advice in real estate, and it gets a lot of people in trouble. In San Diego, buying isn't always smarter. The math can
Neighborhood Economics
Neighborhood Economics
Renovation & Expansion
The decision to expand is harder than it looks. Some fall in love with the project (the finished ADU, the second story, the converted garage) and reverse-engineer the justification later. Others treat it as a pure spreadsheet exercise, hunting for the best ROI based on bold assumptions. Both miss
Rental Investing
A real rental analysis has a couple dozen inputs, and if you've ever stared at one, half of them look like busywork. They're not. Every field is a lever, and most of them can swing a deal from "great" to "money pit"
Neighborhood Economics
If you've been researching El Cerrito and keep seeing a median home price around $580,000, you're looking at the wrong number. That figure is real. It just describes a neighborhood full of condos, not the detached house you're probably shopping for. For a