With cell phone microphones dangling from their ears and eyes at chest level scanning name tags, the nucleus of 92101’s thriving housing industry, the Downtown Caravan, gathers each Thursday at 9 a.m. in CCDC’s information center at the base of the NBC Building. The 100 or so people in attendance are the residential real estate agents, brokers and other folks for whom knowledge about the urban market translates into better earning opportunities.

As the sessions begin, the good-looking and confident crowd is slugging down free coffee and snacks while networking. The chatter stops about 10 minutes in when Jim Abbott and Caryl Iseman take to the microphone. The two brokers who founded the Caravan run a tight show. The sponsor, who buys the food, gets a few words, then individual agents are invited to announce open houses and the inducements to attend; Costco sandwiches for snacks and drawings for Nordstrom gift certificates are popular.

It is clear from the banter that while the market is busy, prices are negotiable. There’s even an opportunity to plug properties in adjacent communities. “Let’s quickly do pitches outside of Downtown, although why anyone would like living there I don’t know,” Iseman jokes one morning. Still, an opening of units at 29th Street and A in Golden Hill, with prices between $539,000 and $599,000, draws lots of interest. As the group breaks, brokers head off to their cars to make the rounds.

These working sessions now have a social spin-off. Caravan members are gathering monthly at different spots — in February it was Oceanaire — to continue plumbing the possibilities in the hottest residential real estate ZIP code in San Diego County.