House Lust

If you’ve come to fear that you spend Way too much time watching House Hunters on HGTV,  if you’ve found yourself Zillow-ing everyone from your neighbors to a blind date or if you have spent so much on buying and upgrading your home that you are "house poor",  you may well have developed a case of House Lust.   And author Daniel McGinn will be the first to assure you that you are not alone.   With the enthusiasm of a bit of his own "house lust",  McGinn examines America’s fascination with our houses from almost every perspective.   And McGinn doesn’t do any of it half-assed.   From buying and rennovating his own home, to becoming an absentee landlord of a duplex in Pocatello, Idaho  (a city he has never once even visited, let alone lived in) to obtaining his real estate agent license, just for the heck of it McGinn has lived it up to write it down.

It was comforting to me to know that I am not the only renter with no plans to purchase who regularly watches House Hunters and the other real estate shopping and price shows on HGTV.   (I am also, somehow,  comforted a bit when the buyers "hear" and follow my shouted at the tv screen advice on which home they should buy).   It was also something of a relief not to be playing the real estate game which seems to me a very expensive past time,  unlike participating as a spectator which is essentially free.   I learned a lot I didn’t know about real estate, re-modelling and the residential landlord game  (which also struck me as a very expensive sort of pastime).  Whether you are an active participant or a spectator if you, too, suffer from a tinge of House Lust,  this book is Recommended.