House Lust: America's Obsession With Our Homes | 
| Author: Daniel Mcginn
Publisher: Doubleday Business
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 65106
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.5 x 1
ISBN: 038551929X
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.94
EAN: 9780385519298
ASIN: 038551929X
Publication Date: January 8, 2008
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Product Description
A rich narrative that blends social commentary with incisive reporting, House Lust offers an astute, funny, and sometimes disturbing portrait of the behaviors that drove the greatest real estate boom in history—and its eventual bust.
Owning a home has long been considered the fulfillment of the American Dream. But in the last decade, as the real estate market boomed, Americans’ fascination with homes turned into a frenzy. Everywhere we turned, people were talking about, scheming over, envying, shopping for, refinancing, or just plain ogling houses—in the process, we’ve transformed shelter from a basic necessity into an all-consuming passion.
In House Lust, Newsweek’s Daniel McGinn travels the country to explore the roots of this mania. Even as the real estate boom has turned to bust, Americans remain obsessed with houses—many of us are still trading up, adding on, or doubling down to buy vacation property. But for others, this zeal for housing has carried a painful price, one that’s evident in the soaring foreclosure rates and mounting despair as millions of homeowners (and their lenders) realize they’ve stretched too far to buy the home of their dreams.
In a compelling narrative that takes us inside the homes—and psyches—of the House Lust–afflicted throughout the nation, McGinn examines the forces that turned housing into the talk of dinner parties. He explores the arms race for square footage and introduces readers to a menagerie of characters from the real estate world—from “renovation psychologists” who treat remodeling-addled clients to a guy who trades vacation time-shares the way kids trade baseball cards. McGinn also jumps into the fray himself by enrolling in real estate school and buying an investment property, sight unseen, over the Internet.
House Lust shows us just how contagious the ideal of owning the best home on the block can be. And as the real estate boom recedes into memory, McGinn offers cautionary tales to help us curb our lust when prices start rising again.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 America's obsession with ever larger and outlandishly expensive homes is a real turn off for me. June 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In his 2004 book "Boomer Nation: The Largest and Richest Generation Ever And How It Changed America" Steve Gillon refers to a rather surprising observation from Paul Begala, hardly a conservative Republican, who opined that "baby boomers are the most self-centered, self-seeking, self-interested, self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self aggrandizing generation in American history." You will get no argument from me there and I was born in 1951! You remember the boomers don't you? These were the disaffected young people who were marching in the streets in the late 1960's. Well, a funny thing happened on the way to retirement. Millions of baby boomers have developed a condition that author Daniel McGinn refers to as "House Lust". And the epidemic is spreading to younger generations as well.
What are the symptoms of "House Lust"? If you are spending more than a few hours each week watching HGTV you are likely coming down with this highly contagious affliction. I hear that shows like "House Hunters", Designer's Challenge", "Flip This House" and "What You Get For The Money" can be extremely addicting. Daniel McGinn points to the meteoric rise in the popularity of HGTV over the past decade as a major factor in the real estate craze we have all experienced. Suddenly you realize that you are living in the wrong neighborhood or that your house just doesn't cut it anymore. Another symptom of "House Lust" is an aversion to anything small, outdated or used. Many of those in the market for a house today are looking for a home at least 3 or 4 times the size of the houses they grew up in. They also want homes loaded with just about every amenity imaginable. Daniel McGinn goes on ad nauseum about the myriad of options available to buyers today. Have you heard those commercials on the radio explaining how much happier life will be if you install new Corian counter tops in your kitchen? And then there is the debate about buying a brand new home as opposed to purchasing an existing dwelling and renovating. You will learn the pros and cons of each of these options. Perhaps the most disturbing thing I read in "House Lust" is the story of Dr. Debi Warner, the "Renovation Psychologist" hailing from the great state of New Hampshire. Dr. Warner has evidently carved out a niche for herself assisting embattled couples as they navigate the difficult road of home renovation. Renovating can be s-o-o-o stressful! Apparently there is a TV show in the works as well! In the latter chapters of "House Lust" there is much practical information to he had about other issues surrounding the housing industry. You will learn why so many individuals take a shot at a career in real estate and why so many of these folks drop out of the business after just a short time. McGinn also explores the issues surrounding vacation homes and time-shares. Finally, Dan McGinn examines the pros and cons of investing in real estate. I was quite surprised to learn how many people purchase investment properties they have never seen in states that are hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Sounds awfully risky to me.
At the end of the day I found "House Lust: America's Obsession With Our Homes" to be a fairly well-written and pretty informative book. Yet much of the subject matter greatly disturbs me. More than once I found myself muttering "What the heck were these people thinking?" when reading about some of the obscene amounts of money that people are willing to spend on building and renovating their homes. I hate the conspicuous consumption that seems to be in evidence everywhere you turn these days. And as author Robert Putnam so aptly points out in his seminal book "Bowling Alone" we all pay a price for such self absorption. Clearly, civic participation is at an all-time low as people withdraw from the public square and retreat into their not so humble abodes. It would appear that a growing number of us seem perfectly willing to sit back and "let the other guy do it." As their numbers continue to dwindle, once vibrant civic and religious organizations like the Elks, Knights of Columbus and the American Legion to name but a few are struggling to survive. Our communities are the big losers because many of the volunteer services that once were provided by these organizations have either totally disappeared or have had to be assumed by the government. Another extremely disturbing trend is that political parties are finding it more and more difficult to attract talented people to run for political office.
In the final analysis the American constitution guarantees each one of us the "freedom to be foolish". People who choose to spend outlandish sums on their homes should do so at their own risk. If things go awry these people have no right to expect the government to bail them out. Perhaps the painful lessons we are learning today will help to us all to curb our appetites just a bit in the future. "House Lust" is a great way to get up to speed on these fascinating issues. Recommended.
Lots of FUN and also Educational June 11, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book. It is extremely easy to read, has adequate footnotes for those who want to further explore any of the topics which the author covers, and in my opinion it incredibly accurately captures the fascination/interest/obsession (and yes, even lust) of many of us have for all aspects of activity regarding our homes (and those of our neighbors and even strangers). Whatever the reason (idle curiosity, planning a move, determination of the value of your own home, interest in renovations), if you often peruse the weekly real estate section of your local paper, visit open houses just for the heck of it, often mentally decide how you would renovate or redecorate a home that you are visiting, can't resist checking out the neighborhoods where you vacation with the thought that it might be nice to have your own getaway abode there, or have graduated from watching THIS OLD HOUSE on PBS to being able to recite from memory the most watched shows on HGTV, this book is definitely for you.
Dan McGInn is a national correspondent for Newsweek. He has spent several years covering many aspects of the real estate boom that eventually assumed bubble type characteristics and is now undergoing the inevitable hangover of a correction, which will hopefully not morph into a crash. The tone and style of the book is illustrated by his examination of the traditional competition and envy (not confined to real estate), which he describes in his opening chapter about the Toll Brothers' subdivision in Potomac Maryland, aptly titled "Mine's Bigger than Yours". Other randomly selected chapters include commentary on such topics as "Fix-up Fever", the seemingly favorite neighborhood pasttime in some communities of remodeling cum expansion, and the whole mystique of often little used vacation homes that are usually very uneconomic investments despite their frequent justification on that basis. Included in that discussion is a very interesting overview of the operation of the timeshare industry for the uninformed such as myself, as well as the recently introduced luxury vacation option known as destination clubs (as epitomized by Exclusive Resorts, the largest).
McGinn has a keen eye and an engaging style; as the title of my review states, I not only found a lot of educational material (admittedly much anecdotal, but a lot of hard facts as well), but I also really had fun reading this book (as it appeared that he did writing it). So if you are a chronic addict with HOUSE LUST that cannot be cured, you will probably relate to much of the material in this book. But even for the more casual hobbyist (who can change the dial and for whom HOUSE HUNTERS is not "appointment television"), the new terminology alone to which you are introduced is worth the time and price of the book. One example - in Las Vegas a new home is as much a status symbol as a new car, and what is in other parts of the country simply considered an existing home being sold is for many individuals in that area a "used home" which carries as much of a second hand stigma as a used car. Other interesting topics include the monogamous vs. polygamist vacationers (as well as "staycationers"), renovation hell, home location "splitters", the risque practice of "house humping' (I had no clue), as well as lots of insider lingo and shorthand.
He also touches on the topic of how technological innovations are changing both our lifestyles and our homes, and has a fascinating compilation of statistics regarding the growth in size of our residences over the past few decades. Finally, to complete his research he takes the local exam to obtain his real estate license and provides some insights into the profession of realtor as well.
My goal in writing this review has been to provide an intriguing overview of how successful McGinn has been in capturing in an extremely entertaining manner the quest surrounding what for many Americans is a (and perhaps the) central element of their pursuit of the American Dream, a home of their own (and then- the renovations and subsequent additions, and later a vacation home, etc., etc.) I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.
A well-organized walkthrough of factors driving the housing bubble June 7, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The first thing that strikes me about Daniel McGinn's excellent first book, "House Lust," is how supremely organized it is. We get a very well-organized tour through the housing bubble via separate, tidy, punchy chapters concerning up-sizing mania, the new-house phenomena driving booms in locales like Las Vegas, fix-up fever, real-estate investing as a watching sport, rental properties, Realtor conventions and vacation homes/time shares. Each chapter gets just the right gist of what that particular piece adds to the overall market.
Furthermore, McGinn's effort is awash in credibility. Not only did he research house lust, he lived it. Among his many participatory exploits are his eyebrow-raising purchase of a rental property in Pocatello, Idaho (he used his book advance, much to the, umm, chagrin of his wife) and his pursuit of a Realtor license. In each case, the author's first-hand involvement greatly enriches the tale.
Of additional note are McGinn's efforts to keep the book relevant at the time of the sub-prime-fueled, foreclosure-laden bust of the bubble. The book was conceived mid-bubble. The market had clearly turned prior to publication. McGinn notes this dramatic shift and adds what I feel is an appropriate level of commentary about the implications. To that end, in his Acknowledgements section he mentions that esteemed economist and Newsweek colleague Robert Samuelson "provided generous advice on adjusting the book's tone as the housing market weakened."
Speaking of Newsweek, like many others I suppose, I learned of this book through the excerpt in that weekly. I've been a long-time (20+ years) subscriber. It's a delight to see how many colleagues McGinn credits by name and how many he counts as friends. It's a workplace that seems very family-like and collegial. In the wake of a significant buyout of many of Newsweek's longtime writers, it leaves me a bit melancholy. This is the downside of the web revolution and rapidly plummeting print circulations: the busting up and atrophying of great talent pools like Newsweek is a most unfortunate thing for readers like me...and it seems for people like Daniel McGinn, a generous journalist who understands how a place like Newsweek molded him.
Great book May 21, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I finished this book in two days. It's a great look at all types of real estate and what has fueled (and continues to fuel) our love of homes and real estate.
What a fun read!! For everyone who enjoys HGTV or looking at real estate May 14, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Great book! Easy read and very interesting. While I don't agree with some of his conclusions, this is a behind the scenes look at HGTV and what makes us so house focused. I love looking at houses, comparing houses, reading listings, etc . .. and therefore, I loved this book! Easy to read, fun read. For anyone that is looking to buy, looking to sell, looking to build, or looking to remodel.
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