We have not mentioned, in the conversation about houses, that a house is home. Here are the marks where the kids’ growth was This is the painted study, done while I was on the phone to my mother in Seattle telling me about grandma’s lost luggage and she can’t (grandma) find her extra teeth. And I was glad to be painting.
Here is the sunshine, perfect for baby naps.

Here is the dining room where our friends gathered for meals and family gathered for holiday meals.
I think we’ve lost this piece of it. I think we, in the industry and the media, have been trained – in the last ten years – to say, oh yes, here is a item to be bought and sold, nothing more than a commodity. We have completely disregarded the fact that home has meant so much more, emotionally and physically, to the American people, than just a market item.

And now, as people sit in their “good buy” or in their “easy to flip” and they can’t move, they have time to consider if they did, indeed, made a good choice? Was this where they wanted to live, walk the dog, take the children out for ice cream? Did that come in the decision at all? Or were they a master of the universe in the sub-prime world? And did it all collapse? And now they are stuck in a rut of their own digging?

As the market corrects and returns to something more stately and reasonable, I’d like to propose that buyers look for homes again, not an investment, not something to flip in a year, but a home. I suggest that we return to the idea that a house is the place to protect grandma’s dining set. A place that has the living room set up for optional TV watching after a long day at work. The home should not be painted Navaho white for resale, the walls should be painted bright yellow to show off the family pictures. A home should be purchased because it feels like a place of refuge, and offers the opportunity to be part of the neighborhood.

And we need to acknowledge that for sellers, yes, they are handing over that very refuge for money.
For sellers we hope you are trading one lifestyle for a newer and better one. This home was an accomplishment, representing the pinnacle of accomplishment and effort, and now the seller must let it go. This emotion shouldn’t be dismissed, and the obvious past efforts by the seller should be acknowledged and respected. I think this is important to do and I think we need to re-think what a home is, what buying a home means, and anoint the project with more dignity and less haste.