snit snat wrote:
> I think that, if you were to do a more ethnographic study of how they
> actually _talk_ about their homes/houses, you'll probably find
> something much more complicated -- the tension of which I spoke,
> between thinking of something as a home and something as a house.
It's a koan of sorts. I think the really smart thing to do right now in the bay area if you own a house is to sell it and put the money into, oh, Swiss Francs.
Rentals are very cheap now. My neighborhood is peppered with For Rent signs & I'm willing to bet that any additional growth in housing prices will be offset by a devaluing dollar -- but whatever. I have a friend who bought a very small 3 bd cottage/house for $180,000 fifteen years ago, who could easily sell it for 500,000.++, but the point is, it's gotten to be her home; it's part of her identity. It's this complicated thing where you make certain choices in order to buy a house, to maintain it, to pay that amortgage month after month after month...and when it's all said and done, that house represents your life so much so that selling it is like tearing something out of your life. People may say "investment" and there is certainly a lot of speculation going on....but there's also a lot of attachment and identification which makes liquidation problematic.
As an aside, I notice that the only time I yearn for a house (I've always rented) is when I feel lonely/empty and the house promises some kind of incarnation, some kind of proof that I exist and amount to something. I think it plays that role for a lot of people.
Joanna