The Final Boss of Social Mobility 🏘️

Brock's newsletter | FEBRUARY 6TH, 2026

The Final Boss of Social Mobility.

We all remember that one kid whose house everyone wanted to hang out at.

It was probably big (though not necessarily) with super chill/fun parents who were somehow always home. There was a special "kid area" with the pool table and Nintendo, maybe a dart board, all the toys, and old furniture. And no one was too precious about not breaking anything.

In Canada, where I grew up, it was always the basement—parents never came down, just hollered when there was food. The kitchen was casual, stocked with good, slightly junk-food snacks.

This is such a worthy real estate goal, and pretty much all Lori wants now that our kids are 8/6/6 (yes, twins) and our renovation is finished: a house where friends and family feel welcome and that's never empty.

I feel like this is the final boss of social mobility. But what's funny is all the real estate inspo on Instagram—the conversation pits and insanely busy powder rooms—never shows people gathering.

Dwell has their barefoot couples casually reading while one blond kid plays on the floor. AD has celebrities. But it's funny how the highest level of home aspiration is always design and not, I don't know, community.

We toured this gorgeous home yesterday in Los Feliz and Lori quickly fell into scheming about liquidating a portion of the real estate portfolio I've spent the last two decades building to own it. Think of the weddings we could host! The parties we could have!

This perfect Spanish Revival estate allowed for a life of community and grand gatherings – the pinnacle of homeownership, aspirational enough for her to totally blow up our financial plan.

But the reality is we'd eventually be two humans with adult children living in an 11,000 square foot home, and $100,000+ a year in property taxes (though we could wait 4 ½ years until I'm 55 and bring over our property tax basis 🤔).

Still, it's always a tad sad when we meet a couple downsizing from a family home. You can see the memories in the empty rooms. For all the reasons people move—death, divorce, birth—it really comes down to size. Either too big or too small.