Homeownership, the Key to Happiness?

买房人，你幸福了吗？

 

If trying to buy an apartment in New York City has been making you miserable, consider this: actually, getting that home may not make you happy.

 

如果你拼死拼活，就为了在纽约市买一套公寓，那么请静下心来想一想：或许就算买到了房，也不能让你幸福。

 

A growing body of research suggests that spending money on real estate doesn’t necessarily mean investing in contentment. Indeed, the conventional advice to cut back on vacations, restaurant meals and other extras in order to save money for a home may actually be detrimental to felicity. Experts in happiness – an increasingly popular field focused on the scientific understanding of emotional well-being – say that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material goods, whether it be a new car or a bigger apartment.

 

有越来越多的研究表明，往房地产里砸钱，并不等同于为日后的满足投资。实际上，加班加点、节衣缩食地攒钱买房，可能会让人的幸福感大打折扣。幸福学专家（幸福学是目前一个日益火爆的领域，着眼于对情感健康的科学理解）表示，人在购置新车、置换大房屋这类物质消费上获得的幸福感，并不如花钱买体验来得多。

 

“People are making so many trade-offs in order to have that home,” said Elizabeth Dunn, an associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia who studies consumerism and happiness. She recently explored the impact of housing on people’s happiness while compiling studies for a new book, “Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending,” which she wrote with Michael Norton, who teaches at the Harvard Business School.

 

“人们为了买房子付出了太多牺牲。”不列颠哥伦比亚大学（University of British Columbia）的心理学副教授伊丽莎白·杜恩（Elizabeth Dunn）表示。杜恩的研究领域是消费主义与幸福的关系。最近，她与哈佛商学院的迈克尔·诺顿（Michael Norton）合著了一本新书《快乐消费：更加明智的消费科学》（Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending）。为著此书，她在调研时，探讨了住宅对人的幸福感造成的影响。

 

The recession forced many people to curb their spending habits and re-evaluate their overall lifestyles. But after saving money for years, buyers encouraged by low mortgage rates are re-entering the housing market. They find the pickings slim. In Manhattan, the number of apartments for sale for the second quarter was at a 13-year low, stoking competition and driving up prices.

 

本轮经济衰退迫使很多人改变了过去的消费习惯，重新审视自己的生活方式。然而，在存了很多年钱后，他们受到低按揭利率的激励，又开始重新进入房地产市场。之后，他们却发现自己的选择相当有限。在曼哈顿，今年二季度的待售公寓数量已降至十三年来的低谷，激发起买家的竞争，导致房价飙升。

 

Now there is research like Dr. Dunn’s, emphasizing that when it comes to your overall happiness, “there are a lot of better things you could be putting your money toward” than real estate.

 

无独有偶，还有与杜恩类似的研究，得出了这样的结论：如果放眼于个人的整体幸福，比房地产“更值得投资的东西多了去了”。

 

This isn’t necessarily bad news in a place like New York City, where nearly 70 percent of the housing stock is rentals. And it may offer some solace to frustrated buyers facing bidding wars and all-cash offers they simply can’t top.

 

对于生活在纽约市的人来说，这也未必是个坏消息。毕竟，全纽约市有70%的房屋是用来出租的。同样，对于买房者来说，这个消息或许也能带来些许心理安慰，毕竟他们已经被竞价大战弄得焦头烂额，就算是全现金支付，也总有出价更高的。

 

“People still view housing as a central component of happiness and a critical aspect of the American dream,” Dr. Dunn said. “But there is little research to support that.”

 

“在人们的眼里，住宅依然是幸福感的重要来源和美国梦的重要方面，”杜恩表示，“但是，很少有研究结果支持这个观点。”

 

A 2011 study of about 600 women in Ohio found that homeowners weren’t any happier than renters. The study was conducted by Grace Wong Bucchianeri, then an assistant professor of real estate at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Indeed, homeowners spent less time on leisure activities with friends and reported that they derived some pain from homeownership. What exactly caused that pain wasn’t indicated in the study, but financial experts say that people who make the leap from renting to buying can be caught off guard by the nuts and bolts.

 

2011年，时任宾夕法尼亚大学（University of Pennsylvania）沃顿商学院（Wharton School）助理教授的格蕾丝·王·布奇艾勒瑞（Grace Wong Bucchianeri）进行了一项研究，她走访了俄亥俄州内大约600名女性后发现，有房族并不比租房客更幸福。事实上，有房族在休闲会友上花的时间更少，他们还表示，买房也给他们造成了一定的痛苦。研究报告中并没有说明造成这种痛苦的确切原因，但是金融专家表示，人们从租房客晋升为有房族以后，可能会被打理家庭的琐事弄得焦头烂额。

 

“The reality of maintenance and repairs, and being ‘house rich but cash poor,’ can negate much of the perceived happiness people may have had about homeownership,” said Greg McBride, the senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com. Even if a low mortgage rate means you spend less each month than you did when renting, upkeep can drain a bank account faster than a leaking water heater.

 

“买房以后要费一番功夫保养、维护，而且房子是养起来了，钱包却瘪了，人的预期幸福感会大打折扣。”Bankrate.com网站的高级金融分析师格雷格·麦克布莱德（Greg McBride）说。就算按揭利率很低，算起来每个月用来还款的钱还没有租房时交的房租多；但购房者用在房屋保养上的各项支出，也会使他们的银行积蓄流失得比一只漏水的龙头还要快。

 

What about the pleasure of living in a beautiful house in a coveted neighborhood? In a delightful screed posted in May on Medium.com, an online publishing site, Lindsey M. Green, a publicist for start-up and technology companies, writes about how even a lovely town house in a sought-after neighborhood can be a letdown.

 

那么要是所住的房子漂亮又舒适，小区环境也得天独厚，是不是就能让人满足了呢？今年5月，在线出版平台Medium.com上登载了一篇欢乐的长文。作者是专为创业公司和科技企业做宣传推广的林赛·M.格林（Lindsey M. Green）。这篇文章告诉我们，为何就算是在一个热门小区里找到一套舒适的联排别墅，住进去之后也可能失望透顶。

 

Ms. Green moved to New York City in 2003 and sublet what she described as a “cramped, cheap, Far West Village studio.” She moved eight times within Manhattan over the course of nearly 10 years, even as her friends decamped for Brooklyn and sang its praises. “I was happy as could be as the last dinosaur in Manhattan,” she wrote.

 

格林在2003年搬到纽约市，逃离了她所说的“廉价而拥挤不堪的远西村（Far West Village）工作室”。她在曼哈顿住了将近10年，期间搬过8次家。就算身边的朋友一个个都搬到了布鲁克林，并且大肆赞美搬家后的生活，她也依然不为所动。“作为朋友圈里坚守在曼哈顿的最后一只‘恐龙’，我却乐得自在。”她写道。

 

In 2011 she moved to a two-bedroom two-bath in South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan with her then-boyfriend, now fiancé, Lockhart Steele, the founder of Curbed.com. But in October 2012, flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy forced them to evacuate. So with all of the hype that Brooklyn was getting, they jumped at a six-month sublet in a newly renovated Cobble Hill town house.

 

2011年，她同当时的男友、现在的未婚夫——Curbed.com网站创始人洛克哈特·斯蒂尔（Lockhart Steele）把家搬到了曼哈顿下城的南街海港（South Street Seaport，曼哈顿的一处历史街区，毗邻金融区——译注）的一套两室两卫的房子里。可惜好景不长，2012年10月，飓风桑迪（Hurricane Sandy）引发的洪灾迫使他们不得不撤离曼哈顿。就这样，他们来到久负盛名的布鲁克林，满怀期待地搬进了科布尔山（Cobble Hill）的一座翻新的联排别墅里。

 

“I could feel all the magazine headlines becoming my reality,” she wrote. “All of the ‘Best of New York’ picks in Brooklyn would suddenly make so much sense. I could become one of those people talking about how much better her life was, now that I finally made the move to Brooklyn.”

 

“我都能感觉到，以往只能在杂志头条上看到的东西正在变为我生活中的现实，”她写道，“都说‘纽约最好的东西’都集中在布鲁克林，这下我算是见识到了。总算搬到了布鲁克林来，我也可以成为那些成天吹嘘自己搬家之后生活有多么好的人当中的一员了。”

 

She hated it. “Moving to Brooklyn, even into a four-story town house on a beautiful block, in a neighborhood everyone loves,” she wrote, “didn’t make our lives better; it made our quality of life worse.” It didn’t matter that she was living in a lovely home – she missed the bustle of Manhattan and the sense of belonging she had felt there. As she put it: “Manhattan – its absurd inconveniences, annoyances, high rents, crowded bars and tourist-packed streets – is my yoga.”

 

结果，布鲁克林并不是她的菜。“搬到布鲁克林以后，纵使我们住的地方是一个四层的联排别墅，街区环境优美，小区人人喜爱，”她写道，“我们的生活也没有变好；确切地说，生活质量反而下降了。”虽然她住的地方条件很好，但这已经不重要了——她想念熙熙攘攘的曼哈顿，觉得在那里生活有归属感。用她的话来说：“曼哈顿——及其中各类令人发指的不便、糟心事、高房租，人满为患的酒吧和大街上比肩继踵的游客——就是我的瑜伽修行。”

 

Not everyone is crazy about Brooklyn. And at least one study suggests that the emphasis on location and physical characteristics (prewar charm, oak floors, a fabulous view) doesn’t have much bearing on our overall happiness.

 

并不是每个人都对布鲁克林着迷。至少有一项研究表明，住房的地理位置及其本身的特点（古典的装潢、橡木地板、优美的窗景）与人的整体幸福感关系不大。

 

As an undergraduate at Harvard in the late 1990s, Dr. Dunn, the happiness expert, experienced the annual ritual, akin to the Hogwarts Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter series, whereby first-year students are randomly assigned to spend the rest of their college years in one of 12 dormitories or houses. In a longitudinal study published in 2003 with Timothy D. Wilson of the University of Virginia, and Daniel T. Gilbert of Harvard, both of whom are known for their research on the link between decision-making and well-being, she found that freshmen expected to be much happier living in one of the more desirable – handsome, centrally located – of the 12. But those who landed in plum surroundings ended up no happier than students in less desirable houses.

 

上文提到的幸福学专家杜恩，在上世纪90年代末还是哈佛大学的学生。哈佛大学有个传统仪式，跟《哈利·波特》（Harry Potter）系列中描述的霍格沃茨魔法学校的分院仪式相似。哈佛的新生第一年会被随机分配到12栋宿舍楼中的一栋，在那里住到毕业。各个宿舍楼的条件各异。2003年，弗吉尼亚大学的蒂莫西D·威尔逊（Timothy D. Wilson）和哈佛大学的丹尼尔T·吉尔伯特（Daniel T. Gilbert）——两人均以研究决策和幸福的关系而闻名——对此进行了一项纵向研究，结果出乎人的意料。本来，要是能被分配到12栋宿舍楼中条件最好、设施最全、位置最佳的那栋，这样的幸运儿一定会比其他新生更幸福。结果，无论住宿条件是好是坏，新生的幸福感没有区别。

 

It is difficult to make a connection between the happiness of Harvard undergrads and real estate contentment elsewhere. But the study indicated that by placing so much weight on the physical characteristics of the houses, including location, room size and architectural appeal, the students overlooked what ended up contributing most to their happiness – the quality of their social life.

 

我们不能草率地将这个结果推广开去，但是这项研究确实能说明一些问题：如果只是一味地看重宿舍的物质特征，比如地理位置、房间大小、建筑美感等等，学生们就难免会忽视其幸福感的决定因素——社交生活的质量。

 

Between 1991 and 2007, researchers tracked 3,658 people in Germany who moved to a new home because there was something they didn’t like about the old one. Although the participants reported a significant boost in satisfaction with their home for the first five years, they didn’t feel any better about their lives overall after they moved, according to the study, which was published in 2010.

 

从1991到2007年，研究人员跟踪走访了3658名因不满旧居而迁新居的德国人。2010年发布的研究结果显示，尽管受访者表示，在搬家之后的头五年里，他们对住的地方比以前满意了许多，但却感觉不到自己的整体生活有了丝毫改善。

 

“What matters for our happiness,” Dr. Dunn said, “is what we do in the minutes and hours of our day.” When shopping for a home, she recommends asking yourself, “How will this purchase change the way I spend my time next Tuesday?”

 

杜恩说：“真正影响幸福感的，是我们每一天时时刻刻所做的事情。”她建议人们在为自己家里添置物品时，也要静下心来想一想，“买下这样东西会对我下周二的生活方式造成什么影响？”

 

Whether you have a maple or a walnut floor won’t have a big impact on what you’re doing on an average day, she said. On the other hand, if the house has no dishwasher, you may be committing yourself to spending half an hour a day washing dishes. “That aspect of your house will change what you do with your time,” she said.

 

杜恩表示，不管家里铺的是枫木地板还是胡桃木地板，都不会给人的日常生活造成重大影响。但是另一方面，假如家里没有洗碗机，那可能每天有半小时的时间都得浪费在洗碗上了。“这才是影响你生活方式的重要方面。”杜恩表示。

 

About three years ago, Dr. Dunn bought a two-bedroom with a view of the mountains on Vancouver’s West Side for roughly 550,000 Canadian dollars, or about $520,000. Moving farther inland would have meant a larger place for less money, but a much longer commute. “I can spend my time biking rather than driving to work,” she said. “That changes the way I use my time.”

 

大约三年前，杜恩花了52万美元（约合人民币319万元）在温哥华西端区（West Side，西端区是加拿大温哥华市一个社区，西面濒临英吉利湾，并与史丹利公园和市中心的金融区、耶鲁镇和高豪港等地区为邻——译注）买了一套两居室的山景房。要是在离海边远一点的地方买房，就可能花更少的钱买到更大的房子，但是通勤时间会长很多。“（这样）我就可以把时间省下来骑车上班，而不用开车了，”她说，“这个选择改变了我利用时间的方式。”

 

Many people understand homeownership as serial trading up with a goal of arriving at some sort of real estate perfection. But that dream house may be more elusive than it seems.

 

很多人将拥有房产视为一种交换：用一系列牺牲换取一个在居住上达到理想状态的目标。但是这套理想住房的光环可能比人们想象的更易消逝。

 

“Like any possession, its impact on happiness diminishes over time,” said Ravi Dhar, a psychology professor and the director of the Center for Customer Insight at Yale School of Management. Citing a theory widely held by happiness researchers called hedonic adaptation, he said, “things give us more joy when they are first acquired than over time, as we adapt to them.”

 

“跟其他物质财产一样，房子给我们带来的幸福感也会随着时间的流逝而消失。”耶鲁大学管理学院消费者研究中心（Center for Customer Insight）主任、心理学教授拉维·达尔（Ravi Dhar）表示。他援引幸福学界流行的“享乐适应”（hedonic adaptation）理论进一步解释道：“买回来的东西在刚入手那阵子，给我们的幸福感是最强的，久而久之就习惯成自然了。”

 

Based on this principle, to remain happy with your home you need to move periodically. The technique seems to be working for Luis Moreno, 43, a film editor in New York. When he arrived in Manhattan in 1992 after graduating from college, he shared a two-bedroom with five roommates. “I got the dining room and had a sheet for the door,” he said, “but I felt like I made it, because it was my first place in New York.”

 

按照这个原理，我们要想对自己住的地方保持满意度，就得时常搬搬家。这个方法似乎对路易斯·莫雷诺（Luis Moreno）很奏效。莫雷诺现年43岁，是纽约的电影剪辑师。1992年大学毕业后，他来到曼哈顿，与五个人合租了一套两居室公寓。“虽然我住的房间是个餐厅，连个像样的门都没有，只能拿纸板充数，”他回忆道，“但是我觉得自己终于在纽约立足了，这是我在纽约的第一个住处。”

 

Like many young professionals, he went through a series of rentals, more crash pads than true homes.

 

和许多年轻的职业人一样，他换租过好几次，这些出租房大多只算歇脚的地方，而不是真正的家。

 

In 2001 he paid $245,000 for a sunny corner one-bedroom at the top of a sixth-floor walk-up in the West Village. “I loved that apartment,” said Mr. Moreno, who moved to Texas in high school from Venezuela. And seeing his name in the New York phone book for the first time was a thrill. But whenever friends or family visited, it meant hauling suitcases up five flights of stairs. So in 2003, he upgraded to a two-bedroom one-bath in an elevator building. Then he found sharing a bathroom with guests wasn’t ideal.

 

2001年，他花了24.5万美元（约合人民币150万元）在西村（West Village，指纽约市曼哈顿区格林尼治村的西部——译注）的一幢无电梯公寓顶楼，买下了一套向阳的一居室。“我喜欢那间公寓。”莫雷诺说。这名委内瑞拉人在高中时来到美国，就读于德克萨斯州的高中。据他回忆，当他第一次看到自己的名字出现在纽约的电话簿上时，内心的兴奋难以言表。但是每次亲戚朋友来访，他们都得提着行李箱，辛辛苦苦地爬五层楼，这很麻烦。于是在2003年，他换了一套更好的房子，新房为两室一卫，楼里有电梯。但是久之，他开始觉得跟客人共用卫生间不是很方便。

 

That took him to Philip Johnson’s Urban Glass House on SoHo’s western fringe, where in 2007 he bought a two-bedroom two-and-half-bath apartment for $2.35 million. Not only did the place have that extra bathroom and a clean modern aesthetic bathed in tons of light, but it also represented the success he had always dreamed of achieving.

 

于是他看中了著名建筑设计师菲利普·约翰逊（Philip Johnson）的杰作——位于苏豪区（SoHo，是纽约市曼哈顿内的一个区域——译注）西部外缘的“都市玻璃屋”（Urban Glass House）。于是在2007年，他花235万美元（约合人民币1442万元）买下一套两室、两个半卫的公寓。新房子不仅有备用卫生间，装潢简约、现代，采光充足，而且还是他事业有成的象征，这是他一直以来梦寐以求。

 

“That made me happy,” he said. “It cemented me feeling like I belong in the city, and I was able to make it happen here for myself.” He felt as he had when he had found his name in the phone book all those years ago. “It was that kind of thing again,” he said.

 

“那套房子令我很满足，”他说道，“它让我觉得自己归属于这座城市，我在这座城市找到了自己的一方天地。”他仿佛体会到了多年前自己的名字第一次出现在电话簿上时的感觉。“就像是昨日重现。”他说。

 

Yet, as his business grew, and his work continued late into the evening, he realized he needed a larger place with a dedicated home office. In March, he listed his two-bedroom place for $2.7 million with Ryan Serhant, a broker with Nest Seekers International who appears on Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing New York.” It quickly went into contract for $2.65 million, and he put a down payment on a three-bedroom duplex with a terrace at 93 Worth, a luxury condo conversion under construction downtown. “It’s like a house,” he said. “I will hopefully never have to leave, and that feels great.”

 

但是，随着业务的增长，莫雷诺每天都要工作到很晚。他开始意识到，自己需要一个更大的房子，其中需要有个专门的房间作为办公室。于是，今年3月，他为自己这套两居室报价270万美元（约合人民币1657万元），交给了房地产经纪公司Nest Seekers International的经纪人莱恩·斯汉特（Ryan Serhant）代理。斯汉特曾经上过精彩电视台（Bravo）的节目《纽约百万美元待售豪宅》（Million Dollar Listing New York），很快他就帮莫雷诺以265万美元（约合人民币1627万元）达成了交易。然后莫雷诺交了首付金，在93 Worth这处位于市中心的一栋正在施工改造的豪华公寓楼里，买下了一套带阳台的三居室双层公寓。“这套房子就像一座独栋别墅，”他说，“我希望自己不需要再搬家了，这感觉可真棒。”

 

Moving is a headache, it’s true. But maybe Mr. Moreno will succumb to hedonic adaptation or the midlife urge to downsize.

 

搬家着实令人头疼，这千真万确。不过，没准莫雷诺会再度屈从于“享乐适应”理论，又或许，人到中年时，他说不定又会需要换一套小点的住宅了。

 

Buying a home is still considered an important step on the ladder to personal fulfillment. But Dr. Dunn isn’t convinced ownership is all it’s cracked up to be. “A very robust finding in psychology is people are highly motivated to justify their own choices,” she said. “It’s very hard to get people to admit they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in a way not optimal for their happiness.”

 

买房依然被视为实现个人满足感的重要步骤，但是杜恩认为，拥有房产的感觉并不完全像它被夸耀得那么好。“心理学上有一个很站得住脚的研究结果是，人们都倾向于为自己的选择做辩护，”她说，“你很难让一个人承认，自己砸下数十万美元，结果却并不令人满意。”

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