From Publishers Weekly
Despite the current downturn in the housing market, the country's mania for homes that exploded during the last half-decade is still alive and well, according to
Newsweek writer McGinn. The fascination with homes—talking about, valuing, scheming over, envying, shopping for, refinancing, or just plain ogling homes—has continued even after the market has cooled, McGinn argues, and can be seen in the ongoing popularity of HGTV, the 24-7 real estate and home improvement cable channel and its flagship show,
House Hunters. To prove his thesis, McGinn entertainingly explores the gamut of housing obsessions, from buying personally designed and oversized trophy homes, attempting large-scale renovations and spending obscene amounts of time on real estate Web sites such as Zillow and PropertyShark to actually going out and getting a real estate license, which McGinn himself does after only minimal training. It is this ability to get inside the actual lives of the housing-obsessed rather that relying purely on statistics to prove his point that makes this book as enjoyable as an episode of
Flip This House, another popular housing reality show that McGinn cites in a book that is, at heart, all about behavior, not economics.
(Dec. 26) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
Praise for HOUSE LUST
"House Lust remains relevant in spite of the bust because, by and large, people will never stop jonesing to keep up with the Joneses."--
USA Today"[
House Lust] raises provocative questions that strike at the covetous soul of America’s culture and economy."
--The New York Times
"
[House Lust] is a witty survey of the world of buying, selling, and gossiping about homes."--
The Wall Street Journal
"Daniel McGinn examines what drove history's greatest real estate boom with insightful, often amusing, anecdotes."
--The New York Post"To understand this overweening desire for residential improvement, McGinn takes a humorous journey across the country... it's obvious McGinn has done his homework." --
The Seattle Times"[
House Lust] has been something of an instant hit."--
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette
"McGinn writes like a social historian, albeit one with an impish curiosity and willingness to follow each thread to the end...
House Lust is a good-humored and entertaining first book."
--The Real Deal
"A highly-readable... snapshot album of 21st century American Life."
--Kirkus"It is [McGinn's] ability to get inside the actual lives of the housing-obsessed rather than relying purely on statistics to prove his point that makes this book as enjoyable as an episode of Flip This House."--
Publishers Weekly"After an odyssey that brought him in contact with every aspect of the housing boom, Daniel McGinn gives a deep sense of the spirit of our times--the Zeitgeist--and an understanding how this boom has led to our current economic problems."---ROBERT SHILLER, author,
Irrational Exuberance“The best part of this smart, entertaining book is that while you're laughing at ot...
--This text refers to the
Kindle Edition
edition.