He Wants to Buy, She Wants to Wait

So, who’s a better shopper? Men or women? Let’s be more specific: Who’s a better real estate shopper and knows when a deal is a deal? No doubt that women are pros at converging on Nordy’s and finding shoes, purses, and clothes for markdown prices. (Professional shoppers never buy at full price!) But, what about houses? This looks like a prime topic for pop psychologists to contemplate since the housing slowdown has ignited a battle of the sexes.

On a recent Zillow Discussions thread titled “Reasoning with an impatient mate,” the issue at hand is that most everyone’s guy (husband or boyfriend) wants to buy right now and the women are waiting for the market to hit bottom. But, when is the bottom coming? Or, have we hit it already?

Callista, “warriorprincess” started the thread with an impassioned plea, “Are any of you facing this situation as well?” Evidently, there’s a lot of tension out there because of the housing market. One couple on the thread is in relationship counseling and one couple has even split — yes, divorced — over similar issues. The back-and-forth was comical and endearing as women swooped in to throw their support for Callista and men scratched their heads over their sudden turn in wanting to buy, buy, buy when it’s usually wait, wait, wait. But, the clincher line of the thread was from Agent Smith who wrote, “Callista, you have to give in to your husband. Husband is the man of the house. Don’t take his manhood away from him.”

And just like that, the thread suddenly changed topic.

Note: I was just about to hit the publish button when Sara Bonert, our intrepid Industry Relations Manager in Chicago, chimed in to say the hottest post on ActiveRain right now is titled, “Housing Market is leading to an increase in divorce.” Wow. This thing really does have legs.