The Importance of Home

"Home is a shelter from storms — all sorts of storms."

- William J. Bennett

I was chatting with a friend who has been house hunting and feeling exasperated, having lost out on several potential homes that she really liked. For the past few months, buyers have been lining up for open houses, paying tens of thousands over asking price, and waiving contingencies and inspections, all to be the winners of the prize - a home.  

It seems that not more than 3 or 4 years ago the housing market was flooded with rental properties. Experts pontificated that people were more transient than ever and that establishing roots was not a value for younger generations and older people wanted to be free from the burdens of homeownership. And then along comes a pandemic and one of the most frenzied home buying cycles we have ever witnessed. Why the stark contradiction? Why did having a home of ones own become a priority again?

Sure, money was inexpensive to borrow, with interest rates at incredible lows, but I’d say the answer has less to do with economics and more to do with what we discovered as a result of the pandemic and an unprecedented amount of time spent quarantining in our surroundings. 

Psychologically speaking, we human beings have a primal need to feel connection, security and well-being. For many of us, much of our pre-pandemic “living” happened away from the home, with the out there becoming the place we looked to have our needs met. But then came a pandemic that pushed the stop button on most of the external things that kept us “busy.”  Stripped of travel, work, dining out and parties, we were left to take a good long look at the homes we have created for ourselves. 

For many, there was a disconnect or a dis-ease with their existing spaces that they could no longer ignore. The long list of projects, the lack of suitable space for remote working and learning, or just plain old having outgrown one another were but a few of the reasons that spurred a lot of people into home buyer mode. One client, whose home was the perfect place for summer quarantining, said he wanted to buy a second home near a ski resort in case we had to quarantine again in the winter months. Another client took the opportunity to finally buy a larger home they’d long admired on their Sunday drives. And yet another finally took the plunge and downsized from the home that had once been filled with 5 children who were long gone.

Whatever the reason, I didn’t see people running away from owning homes of their own, as a plethora of rental properties would have suggested. Rather, I saw people have a renewed appreciation for the important role a home plays in our lives. In the storms of the external world, I saw them running for shelter of their own, the shelter of home.