MentalPolyphonics » home ownership http://mentalpolyphonics.com Committees exist to share blame. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:11:16 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Mortgage is the New Marriage http://mentalpolyphonics.com/posts/mortgage-is-the-new-marriage http://mentalpolyphonics.com/posts/mortgage-is-the-new-marriage#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:14:58 +0000 Jared http://mentalpolyphonics.com/?p=5646 The price of housing is based on people’s ability to pay for it. The desire to own a house is so strong that people will make huge life changes to afford it. I think this buying power of a two-income couple is a major incentive for marriage. But it’s a race to the bottom: couples get married because single people can’t afford houses; single people can’t afford houses because couples are buying them.

Cultural desire for the actual ritual of marriage has decreased as desire to own a house has increased. Market timing adds an urgency to house buying while there’s no obvious time to get married. So now common-law couples buy houses together. Building a home together is a similar commitment to building a family together:

  • a shared mortgage forces financial interdependence
  • consequences of a split are just as serious as a divorce
  • the community recognizes the sanctity of joint ownership
  • housewarming parties are like wedding receptions
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