The real estate article in this week's issue of Newsweek was an excerpt from a new book, "House Lust:America's Obsessions With Our Homes."
It helped to remind me that our interest in real estate is much more than economic, even in these currently gloomy times. Sure, we used the increase in our home equity as an automatic savings plan for years, but we also watched the reality-based makeover shows on HGTV and were fascinated by programs like "House Hunters", their top rated show.
Daniel McGinn, the author, notes that real estate has had a peculiar hold on the American psyche, as far back as several of our founding fathers, who were land speculators. We still spend rainy nights playing Monopoly, and despite the downturn, we are expected to spend $170 billion on remodeling this year.
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