I suppose this NY Times treatise about men who regret becoming homeowners is supposed to garner sympathy and some sort of androgynous bonding, but it simply struck me that these men bought a house with unrealistic expectations or just to check off a life-experience box:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/garden/07men.html?ref=garden
Anyway, I bought my first house after 35 years of adulthood last year, too. It's a 'rambler' -- it has waaayy more room, both inside and outside, than I need living by myself. And, it's tying up much of the money which was either savings or discretionary, spendable cash just a year ago. I'm having a hard time affording a motorcycle-buying, mid-life crisis, for Heaven's sake!
All that said, I don't regret being here for a minute. I've missed having space, trees, wildlife, and my own dirt since leaving the farm on which I grew up two months out of college. I've adopted seemingly ALL of the erstwhile neighborhood stray cats -- there are five of 'em (only one moved in with me) asleep around the house as I write this -- and we're not the least bit crowded. I spent an hour this morning in the crawl space under the house insulating water pipes against the cold -- and feel good about it!
In short, I think the premise of this story is all wrong, although it's certainly PC: the problem with these homeowners wasn't that they are young, professional men, it's that they are too unfocused, too unrooted, or too self-centered to value anything that doesn't put money in their pockets, or social viability into their schedules. And, it's true they probably don't need to be homeowners. But it isn't because the American Dream has lost its luster or value, but rather because some Americans can't see beyond the scope of their own horizons, and find stewardship of anything that will last longer than they do stultifying.
