Why I Haven't Bought A House

I would rather rent than not buy pretty.

In the NASA town of Huntsville, one might expect some modern homes. On the contrary, every new home is as horrible as the next.

Even in architecturally progressive Chicago, this lament seems to be common:

When Kathy and Michael Caisley started looking for a new home, they visited several condos and single-family homes.

"So many were brand-new, luxurious and unaffordable," said Kathy Caisley, a city planner. "Then there were a lot of generic, cottage-style homes; we would have had to sacrifice the look we really wanted." What they really wanted was a sleek modular home like the ones they'd been obsessing over in Dwell magazine, so they did some research.

I spoke to one of the scientists at our lab: she and her husband are repulsed by the Georgian monstrosity that they live in. They are building a modern concrete-based home this year.

Maybe one of the reasons that the housing market is in the toilet is that its uninspired, talentless architects never built any modern, efficient homes for the smart people.