The "van life" crowd fascinates me because how self sustaining they've become. They could stuff the entirety of their lives into the back of a van and survive the apocalypse.
It would seem that a massive cultural shift is occurring. Away from residential living, towards a more nomadic lifestyle. Whether or not the shift accompanies a trend away from city living towards more rural population growth remains unknown at this time.
High cost of living combined with unobtainable housing is what's driving this (no pun intended). The hippies from 20-30 years ago started the concept and lived in the back of vans for the novelty, not because they had to. Younger folks are doing it because it's more convenient than paying 2,000 USD in rent in a large city. I don't disagree.