Reopen Triggers — Events That Reactivate Evaluation
Three triggers reopen evaluation: (1) Family demand signal — multiple children independently making specific, persistent, concrete requests the current home cannot satisfy; (2) Financial step-change — durable 25% real salary increase sustained one year, or two material windfalls that reduce required mortgage size; (3) Market dislocation — rate drop, inventory spike, price shift, or direct inbound purchase inquiry. Triggers authorize evaluation only — not a move. After a trigger, the unicorn gate (C5-017) still applies. If no unicorn is identified, the default stay resumes without further deliberation. Triggers do not stack to lower the gate threshold.
Capture
The default stay (C5-016) is closed. It reopens only when a specific external reality changes. Three categories of trigger are defined. Each trigger authorizes re-evaluation only — not a move. The unicorn gate (C5-017) still applies after any trigger fires.
Trigger 1 — Family Demand Signal
Conditions: Multiple children independently make specific, persistent, concrete requests that the current home demonstrably cannot satisfy.
- "Specific" means an identifiable friction, not general preference.
- "Persistent" means the request recurs over time, not once.
- "Concrete" means tied to the home's actual properties: space, location, function.
- "Multiple" means not one child's preference — convergent signal across children.
This trigger does not fire on: general discontent, social comparisons, or vague desires for a nicer house. It fires on documented, recurring, specific unmet need.
Why this matters: Household stability and family alignment are core constraints throughout this case (C5-003, C5-005). If the home stops serving the children's actual needs — not preferences, needs — that is new information the decision logic must process.
Trigger 2 — Financial Step-Change
Conditions (either):
- Durable base salary increase of at least 25% in real terms after inflation, sustained for at least one year and not dependent on bonus, equity, or role continuation.
- Two large one-time financial events (bonuses, windfalls, asset dispositions) that materially reduce the required mortgage size on a plausible target property.
The test is not gross income — it is the change in financing capacity without pressure. The trigger fires when the family can genuinely afford the step up with sovereignty intact.
Why the 25% threshold: Below this level, the increase in capacity is absorbed by normal lifestyle adjustment and compounding inflation. It does not change what is achievable without pressure. Above it, the target range for a category-level upgrade becomes accessible without forced sequencing.
Trigger 3 — Market Dislocation
Conditions (any one):
- Meaningful mortgage rate drop that materially changes the monthly cost of a category-level upgrade.
- Inventory spike that brings meaningfully better properties into the viable range.
- Price dislocation in target neighborhoods that changes the opportunity set.
- Direct inbound purchase inquiry on the current home at a price that makes the transition asymmetrically favorable.
Market dislocations are passive — they require no action to maintain, and they do not require the family to be actively searching. Awareness is sufficient; the trigger fires when the opportunity set genuinely changes, not merely when a listing appears.
What Triggers Do and Do Not Authorize
A fired trigger reopens evaluation. It does not authorize a move.
After a trigger fires: the family evaluates the available opportunity set against the unicorn gate (C5-017). If a property meeting all gate conditions is identified, the move proceeds. If no such property exists, the evaluation closes and the default stay resumes without further deliberation.
Triggers do not stack. A family demand signal and a financial step-change firing simultaneously do not lower the gate threshold — they expand the search scope and timing window, not the criteria.
Why-Not
Why not make the triggers more sensitive — reopen on any meaningful change? A more sensitive trigger reproduces the passive search problem. The cost of an open question is real: it consumes attention, maintains decision pressure, and invites recurring re-evaluation without new resolution. Triggers are calibrated to represent genuine reality changes, not incremental shifts.
Why not allow intuition or general market awareness to serve as a trigger? General awareness of the market is appropriate and does not need a gate. The trigger structure governs when the family shifts from passive awareness to active evaluation. That shift has real costs and should require a real-world justification.
Commit
Decision: The housing evaluation remains closed unless one of the three defined triggers fires. Triggers authorize evaluation. They do not authorize a move. After a trigger, the unicorn gate (C5-017) applies. If the gate is not met, the default stay resumes.
Confidence: High.
Timestamp
2026-04-26