The notion of a grounded existence always felt a little out of reach to Chris Ramos.
Out of his family home at age 16 after a tumultuous couple of years, the Clovis, Calif., native went spinning through a series of short-term living arrangements, crashing at friends’ houses and taking tiny apartments or room rentals. A move to Portland, Ore., when he was 21 opened Mr. Ramos to the kind of urban, cultured environment that he’d been seeking as a young gay man, but it was no cakewalk.
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“I worked in a nightclub as a booking assistant, at a coffee shop in the morning and at a restaurant,” said Mr. Ramos, now 43, smiling at the memory. “People would get their coffee in the morning and then go to the club at night, and they’re like, ‘You’re working everywhere.’ But I needed to, because I was the one taking care of me.”
Looking for steadier income, he cycled through jobs in Portland and then, beginning in the mid-2000s, in San Francisco. A short but impactful stint at an architecture firm introduced him to the city, and a subsequent gig at the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy lasted a decade. Meanwhile, he was juggling schoolwork as he pursued a bachelor’s degree in urban study and planning at San Francisco State University.
Eventually, he parlayed it all into a job with good pay and benefits, overseeing facilities management at a Silicon Valley firm. And yet, Mr. Ramos still found himself searching for something he thought of as the foundation of a life: a home of his own.
“I always had that worrier in me about being secure, being OK,” he said. “Having my own property felt like a big part of moving away from that worry.”
He was willing to grind for the vision. With his boyfriend’s help, Mr. Ramos bought and converted a Dodge van and lived in it for a year and a half, regularly switching parking spots to avoid tickets and showering at his gym. What he might have paid in rent, he banked instead, aiming for a down payment in the Bay Area’s notoriously expensive housing market.
By the time Mr. Ramos had saved enough, it was summer 2024 and the market had swung back in his favor, with prices dipping for the kinds of one-bedroom condos he favored. A mutual friend introduced him to Michael Baldassara, an agent with Christie’s International Real Estate.
“I felt aligned with his goal, and I understood his struggle,” Mr. Baldassara said. “Chris had sacrificed a ton to do this. He also was open to the possibilities and didn’t feel that he had to grab something right away, which is a beautiful place to be for a buyer. And he was courageous. It can be scary to buy your first place.”
By last fall, the search was on. With about $100,000 saved for a down payment, Mr. Ramos figured that $600,000 was his top-end purchase price. Although he loved San Francisco, he was willing to consider areas in the East Bay, like Oakland and Berkeley, if the price was right.
Among his options:
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