Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House

Perhaps there is no object more desired than a house in America. Meghan Daum writes in her hilarious and poignant book Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House, “There is no object of desire quite like a house. Few things . . . are capable of eliciting such urgent, even painful, yearning.” We long for a house as a marker of who we are. Socially a house is evidence of our success and achievement of the American dream. Houses substantiate our financial status, reputation, and taste.

The story of the suburbs is the story of a house. The single-family residence held out an answer to…