There Are No Dream Homes

These particular people have spent much more money on their houses than other people, but that is a function of American house-buying culture, which steers everyone to the outer limits of their budget and their other capabilities unless they can summon an ascetic degree of refusal and resistance. Not the mode of living of the Bethells, of the Asheville, North Carolina area:

For their retirement in a suburb of Asheville, N.C., Ben and Valentina Bethell spent about $3.5 million in 2009 to build their dream home: a roughly 7,500-square-foot, European-style house with a commanding view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. One couple, the Hambletons of Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina, built a 4,200-square-foot house for “just under $3 million” and almost immediately tried to sell it for $2.99 million; by now they’ve cut the price to $1.975 million:

The years dwindle; the space stays cavernous.

Source: hmmdaily.com