When the house owns you

In many regions, buying a house has gotten so expensive that it's time to turn around the terminology.

You don't own the house. The house owns you.

People that I know who have bought houses seem like they have fallen into black holes. They disappear from community activities for the most part. Having to work two jobs to pay the mortgage, all the repairs around the house, painting, yard work, gardening. The house owns you.

It's kind of like going back to the time of the native Americans when there was more of a tendency to feel like the land owned you, rather than you owning the land.

Now home ownership is bounded more by environmental regulations than before, burning bans, noxious weeds, noise ordinances, water issues, building permits, zoning, you name it. The world is getting more crowded and these things must come to pass. More pressure to be stewards of the land. Also renting isn't so bad after all.