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I recently picked up a copy of "House Lust" (as seen above) by Daniel McGinn, and am mezmorized at how much we forget and far housing has come over the years. This book is a cultural study into what drives the obssessions with Real Estate (i.e. checking listings even when you aren't considering buying, visiting the neighbors open houses, home shows, etc.). It's not a book filled with stats and economical analysis. You'll often find yourself laughing while reading because you do some of those same things.
The book also does a great job at speaking to some of the changes we see in home features over the years. The one thing that really stood out to me right in the first chapter was . . . size. We want BIG homes nowadays. The average size home has grown from 1300 sqft in 1986 to about 2400 sqft today. And we want more bathrooms. Remember those days when 2 bathrooms was a dream-come-true? That's common-place today and not very uncommon to see 3-7 bathrooms in a house (counting up all the 1/2 baths). In fact, we can even end up with more bathrooms than bedrooms. As long as the bedrooms are BIG . . . we're good. This was an interesting fact too concerning size. The first "New American Home" built for the Home Builders Convention was 1500 sqft (something like 1995 I think). Last year's was 10,000 sqft. 12 years later and . . . 10 times the size. Yes, lots of bathrooms too. It's in the book.
We have all seen some very interesting trends especially over the last several years. Home theater rooms, mudrooms, stainless steel appliances, glass-door cabinets, etc. Renovations became a huge focus over the last several years. Kitchen and bathroom remodels top the charts.
Mr. McGinn points out an interesting piece to why the changes by looking at the media available to day such as HGTV, reality house flipping shows, MTV Cribs, home design magazines, etc.. We get a glimpse into those features we might not have seen before and coupled in with super-stores like Home Depot and Lowes . . . we can have those things too.
So if you want an interesting read about the Real Estate market that's not all numbers, stats, finger-pointing, and nail-biting dread . . . I recommend "House Lust". You will definitely find something interesting, laugh, gasp, probably identify with quite a few things because you do them too, and I'm sure have fun reading. Oh, don't look in the Real Estate section of the book store either. You won't find it there (or shouldn't), it will be filed under "Cultural Studies".
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