Housing: Awareness
Understand what housing means, what's possible, and where you stand. About 15 minutes.
Housing is the single largest expense most people face, and its effects extend well beyond the financial. Where and how you live shapes your physical health, mental health, relationships, and daily quality of life.
Research published in the Journal of Housing and the Built Environment found that households spending more than 30% of income on housing report significantly lower life satisfaction. Nearly half of renters (49.7%) and 23.7% of homeowners exceed this threshold.
The effects go well beyond cost. Housing quality is linked to material hardship, lower cognitive achievement for children, higher maternal stress, and strained social and familial relationships. Poor housing conditions – damp, cold, overcrowding, noise – are associated with respiratory illness, sleep disruption, and chronic stress.
Location matters too. Commute time is one of the strongest predictors of daily wellbeing, with research in Transportation showing that longer commutes are associated with lower life satisfaction, less sleep, and reduced time for exercise and social connection. Your housing situation is the foundation on which other life areas rest.
People make housing decisions for different reasons. This site scores every housing intervention across three core values. Later, you'll set your own weighting across these three values, and the site will rank interventions by how well they deliver on the things you actually care about.
Comfort
The physical quality of your living environment – space, light, temperature, noise levels, maintenance condition, and overall pleasantness. Having enough room for your activities, a well-functioning home that does not create daily friction, and an environment that supports rest and productivity. People who lean towards this value invest in the quality of their living space.
Affordability
Keeping housing costs at a sustainable level that preserves financial flexibility for other life goals. Mortgage or rent payments, utilities, maintenance, insurance, and taxes remaining below burdensome thresholds. People who lean towards this value make housing decisions that protect their broader financial health.
Location
Proximity to work, social connections, amenities, nature, and the quality of the surrounding neighbourhood. Commute time, access to services, safety, community character, and the fit between your lifestyle needs and what the location provides. People who lean towards this value choose where to live based on how the location supports their daily life.
The Top 0.1% band represents roughly 1 in 1,000 people. To give you a sense of what that looks like for each housing value:
Christopher Lowell is an interior designer who has spent decades demonstrating how to create exceptionally comfortable living environments without excessive budgets. His approach centres on spatial flow, natural light maximisation, and designing rooms around daily rhythms. His own homes have consistently reflected these principles – purpose-designed spaces for work, rest, and socialising with no deferred maintenance or unresolved friction points.
Jay Shafer pioneered the tiny house movement by designing and living in homes under 10 square metres. He founded the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company and has lived in his own small-footprint houses since the late 1990s, consistently keeping his housing costs to a fraction of the national average. His approach demonstrates that deliberate downsizing can free up both money and time without sacrificing comfort.
Charles Marohn is an urban planner and author who has written extensively about what makes neighbourhoods work. He lives in a walkable small-town setting that he chose specifically for its combination of community connection, access to daily needs, natural environment, and manageable scale – a deliberate alignment between location and lifestyle priorities that he has maintained for decades.
Awareness means knowing your starting point. Answer each question below – some you might know off the top of your head, others might take a few minutes to reflect on.
Comfort
Affordability
Location
Your estimated position
Percentiles are estimates based on published population data on housing affordability, quality, and location satisfaction among adults. All items in this area are scored.
You now understand why housing matters, what different people get out of it, what's achievable, and where you currently stand. The final step is to set your personal value weightings and see which interventions are the best fit for you.
On the interventions page, adjust the sliders to reflect how much you care about comfort, affordability, and location. The table will re-rank interventions to match your priorities.
Awareness assessment complete
You've built your foundation in Housing. Your self-assessment and value weightings are saved.
View Your Interventions