How Homeownership Changes You
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Growing up, Erin Nelson used to make fun of their dad for spending so much time looking out the window at what the neighbors were up to. “Now I’m that person,” Nelson, a 31-year-old who bought their first house a year ago in Portland, Oregon, told me. “I’m always peeking out the window … That’s like my new TV.” Nelson, who uses they/them pronouns, has realized that as a homeowner, their life is bound up with the people next door in a way it never has been before.
Buying a first house is, for , among the largest financial decisions someone makes in their life, and lately, the process : During, and shopping for a house has become in many places. But even some winners of the competition have buyer’s remorse. In a recent survey from the real-estate site Zillow, of respondents reported regretting how much work or maintenance their home required, and concluded that they had paid too much.
