Dream Home: What You Need to Know Before You Buy

Alofsin provides a chatty, informed look at the tension between the persistent goal of home ownership and the gap between dreams and possibilities. The growing ethnic diversity of U.S. home buyers hasn't changed the traditions that heavily shape home buyers' dreams. Alofsin suggests that developers focus on cosmetic, big-dollar issues like landscaping and ambience to add variety and appeal to a limited range of basic models. His focus on newly built homes and his architectural background allow him to illuminate emerging concerns in home construction, among them technology, energy efficiency, and water availability. While some of Alofsin's reflections verge on the obvious, he also offers insights into the mutating housing market. Potential home buyers will find his suggestions about how to define a dream house worth pondering, and find reassurance in his belief that the quality of U.S. homes is improving at all price levels.