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THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF HOME - THE HIDDEN NATURE OF REAL ESTATESafety, warmth, protection, health, family, friendship, childhood memories – these are some of the reasons we need to live inside a building called home. If we can’t find it where we grew up, we will travel as far as we need to find the dream. The dream always seems within reach. WHY PEOPLE MOVE People move to Canada for all the reasons mentioned. Also they seek higher education, psychological and social freedom, liberty and the pursuit of truth. People move to Victoria for the dream of paradise, perfect weather, fine dining, great sports, and safe neighbourhoods. What are your personal reasons for living here? HISTORICAL REASONS Not so long ago, hundreds of thousands of Americans traveled west in wooden carts drawn by oxen looking for a new space to call “home.” What were they leaving behind? The Civil War? Racism? Prejudice? Or were they simply being drawn by the dream of the allure of “the West?” With or without a gold rush. Long before them, thousands of years prior, the First Nations inhabited their homelands in North America. The travelled following the herds of deer, elk, buffalo and their migratory paths. The arrival of so many white people there within a short time between 1850 – 1875 created many social, cultural and military situations. Many of these social upheavals have yet to be sorted out. These differences of perception and culture challenge virtually every village and area of Canada and America between First Nations and non-First Nations. WORLDWIDE DISPLACEMENT Today, all over the globe, there is so much drought, flooding, disease, warfare, famine, and displacement of large numbers of people. Many come to Canada because we are thought to be a peaceful, caring nation. Recent statistics show that Canada rates at the top of the list as the best country to immigrate to. Forty per cent of Americans said they would live here, if they could. Worldwide displacement and geographical movements haven’t always been the historical case. In feudal times, just 300 or so years ago, people lived on the family farm or homestead their entire lives. They never traveled more than 10 miles radius from where they were born. With industrialization, many of the young children in populous families were shipped off to the factories as slave labour and often died there before adulthood. CAPITALISM, MIDDLE CLASS & REAL ESTATE With the advent of capitalism, the possibility of making money, and the chance for the once servile middle classes to own title to their own land, real estate was born. The consciousness of real estate has changed greatly over the centuries since. In other cultures, real estate does not manifest with the same set of values and attitudes as it does here in Canada. Within Canada, real estate is clearly different for the Inuit, First Nations, and rural and urban populations. The buying and selling of something as sacred as Mother Earth creates differing attitudes and models of use of land development. Owning and living in a building does not carry the same emotional, multi-generational attachment it once did with the Canadian farm and other families of the 1700s, 1800s, and even the 1900s. Home in North America is now rarely a longstanding heirloom and sacred place of identity. Buying real estate for many is a dream of flipping houses to get rich. We’ve moved from family values where there is rich personal meaning to particular property to just making money. Houses are commodities. This emotional detachment is in part the reason why many Canadians move every 4 or 5 years. People don’t stay committed in relationships as often as they used to, as witnessed by the over 50 per cent divorce rate. Upward mobility is a value which creates the serial pattern of flipping houses to make an investment, and buying a more expensive house. RELATIONSHIPS AND REAL ESTATE Why are relationships increasingly failing? Lack of understanding of loving relationships, emotional immaturity, financial pressures, personal addictions, ego and selfishness, lack of self-confidence, and lack of self-responsibility create situations where commitment, longevity and mutual support fall apart. Separation and divorce are expensive. Flipping houses is one way of trying to make money to pay for alimony and child care. LIFE SATISFACTION AND BUYING REAL ESTATE The old upper class, the nouveau riche, and wealthy immigrants live in the million-dollar homes in Canada. Many in the middle class have been able to attain this style and price of house. Yet more and more in the middle class, stretched financially well beyond their means, may end up defaulting on their mortgages and losing their houses. There is a chaotic crunch between the post-World War II values of expansive capitalism and real estate, and the reality of financial over-extension. RE-EVALUATING OUR VALUES This is a time when Canadians are forced to re-evaluate our values and attitudes towards life satisfaction and happiness. Many are choosing to slow down, retire early, and give up the financial “ladder” to more expensive real estate. They are realizing, whether through relationship breakup, job loss or health challenges, that friendships and family are far more valuable to them on a day-to-day and lifelong time frame. The true statistics of the numbers of possible foreclosures in America and Canada may astonish you – it is presently 40 per cent. Unless individuals receive credit counseling, re-evaluate their values and beliefs about what constitutes a more satisfying, happy and fulfilling lifestyle, and make daily choices based on these changes, many people will be in for a dramatic, chaotic, financial and psychological roller coaster for years to come. Posted by Joseph Tuesday Aug 31, 2010 17:06 |
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