Moving into a new home is more than just loading and off-loading your baggage inside the moving van. Your emotional baggage, along with the physical, goes away with it.
We all know what retail therapy is. If we find ourselves trying to get out of a bad day, we bring ourselves to the mall for some much needed bonding with our credit card. The purchase we make somehow makes us feel normal again. If we find ourselves nursing a bad hair day, we do retail therapy too to relieve us of our hair-related anxieties.
However, for people who are going through more serious life problems such as as overcoming the death of a loved one, moving on after a breakup or a divorce that has gone awry or recovering from an illness, real estate therapy may just be the answer to solve these problems.
Related: Essential Home Buying Tips
A form of escape
Real estate can be therapeutic as it provides you an escape. A new home may be more than just a change of address, according to a New York Times article. A change in scenery and in neighbourhood can help immensely in the moving on process.
It is important to note, though, that real estate can only be the solution if real estate is indeed the problem. A quiet home in the suburbs may not help you move on from the death of a loved one. The quiet may ironically be too deafening as you recuperate. Transferring to the city where people are largely concentrated may help you zone out your mental clutter.
A way to be closer to the people you love
If you happen to live in a home that is too far away from your place of work or school, a shift to a nearer address will surely help.
A daily 2-hour commute to go to work and another 2 hours to get back home may be more than just physical stress. It can also be mental stress as the days, months and years go by. When you are tired, your mood changes. You may feel more angry than usual, more frustrated you thought you will ever be.
Real estate therapy in this case would mean finding a new home that is closer to your place of work. Moving closer to your job means spending less hours on the road and more in your home resting and recharging for the next day. A closer house means you can be home early to your family, hence improving family relations because you have more time to spend with them.
To simply start anew
Home life is probably the most comforting aspect of being human, but when the household suddenly changes, it may be hard for the players to keep up with what’s new.
Unload your emotional baggage by starting anew at a new address. This is mostly the case for second wives or second husbands who have to live in the shadows of the former spouse. Living in a familiar space means living constantly in the shadows of the one before you. And this can be extremely stressful for couples who found love the second time around. Real estate in this sense is definitely therapeutic. It means betting and owning the future positively by starting with a new home.
