How Long Have You Lived in Your Home?

Rachel:

WWWWAAAAAAYYYYYYY to freaking long!! :) As a military brat, I'm used to moving every couple of years...we've been here since March 1997.

I was VERY fortunate
Elementary school was in Hawaii - did K through 4th
Another elementary school in San Diego - 5th
middle school - San Diego
High School - Upland

We were lucky - we were extended in Hawaii so we stayed for 7 years...Taiwan, VA Beach, Hawaii, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Belgium, Germany,

I loved moving every few years - it kept the clutter down....Lord Help me if we moved now!! OH MY WORD!! It would be horrible!!

8 years. Rented for 2 years while we built this one. Before that, 16 years in the same house in California.

My parents still live in the same house we grew up in: 50 years and counting! There are several other families in their neighborhood who have also been there "forever". It's fun to go back to visit my folks, and see my old friends and their parents, much older but still around.

My hubby and I were just talking about this the other day. I moved a lot when I was a kid, not military. I went to at least 8 different schools and I think the longest I have lived anywhere was 4 years. Now I have owned my first house for 7 years, but only lived in it for 2. Weird huh?

I lived with my parents until I was 19, same home. Lived above my ex's family business for four years until we built the home I currently live in. So I have been in this house for 19 years.

I am too lazy to pack up stuff and move if you can't tell.

This is the longest I've lived in one house, period. 3 years.

Even though we've mostly stayed in Seattle these past 10 years, we moved every year or two. When rent goes from 1000 per month to 1500 per month, time to move! (Happened 3 times). Twice we were in Student Family Housing. Once we lived with my parents to save up a down payment. Once we rented a house and the landlord moved in a roommate (?!?!?!) He was nuts (The landlord. I was 8mo pregnant, on bedrest and DUDE MOVES SOMEONE INTO OUR HOUSE??? No. But we had to wait until our son was 4mo old to have enough for first/last/deposit). Once we had a rental house that made us sick (black mold). I like moving... so no biggie. It's fun to play in the boxes, and do cartwheels and slide on your knees in empty spaces.

Like you I grew up moving. For us, it was because my dad was Navy. Every two years like clockwork, except for a couple times it was a 1 year thing.

When I left home at 17, I also joined the military, so I got schlepped about quite a lot.

I LIKE travelling, and living in new places. We'd only PLANNED on keeping this house 3-4 years. Live for a year. Massive rennovations for a year. Live for a year or two, sell. Well, noooooo money for renovations have kicked out timeline out a bit. No worries (well, not a TON anyway, I'm just super antsy because I can SEE all the things I want to do with this starter/fixer-upper house that we can't do yet, and it's h*** o* playdates because it's currently TINY). The market is down anyway, so we wouldn't SELL right now... but I'd really rather be living in double the square footage with better layout.
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Places i've lived

- Seattle WA (and a few other cities nearby)
- San Diego, CA
- Huntington Beach, CA
- New Orleans, LA
- Pensacola, FL
- Charleston, SC
- Parris Island, SC
- Jacksonville, NC
- Newport News, VA
- Peoria, IL
- Japan
- Guam
- Italy
- UK
- In my car
- On a sailboat
- deployed to various places (mostly s. america and asia)

A lot of these places are repeats. As in I've lived in San Diego twice, Japan 3 times, etc.

We've been in our home 7 years which is too long considering I wished we hadn't bought it about 6 months after we moved in (the neighborhood is the issue, not the house).

Before that going backwards we/I:
Rented a house for 9 months on a month-to-month basis while house shopping,
Lived with my parents for 4 months while DH was in the Police Academy,
Had an adorable apartment right around the corner from my parents for 1 1/2 years,
Had a 2nd floor apartment in Wildwood Crest for 1 1/2 years,
Had a 1st floor apartment for in Wildwood 1 year,
Lived with my parents for 8 months while recovering from a smashed ankle requiring lots of pins & other yuckiness,
Had a miniscule apartment in Somers Point for a winter rental (first time living away from parents at the age of 20, also first time living with DH who was a boyfriend only at the time),
Lived with my parents in 7 different homes over 3 different school districts from birth until the age of 20.

Whew! It's no wonder my husband tells me I have the memory of an elephant!

We just signed our 4th year rental. We hate that we are renting and hate the house. But we HATE to move even more so we are staying put until we can get a house, which probably wont be for a few more years. =(

We've been in our current home 11.5 years. We owned one home before that and lived in it for 3 years, and we rented a home for 3 years before that. This one is on several acres, and it's very expensive to own land in this area, so I don't see us moving anytime soon. It would cost us a fortune to move to another home with land, and after having room to breathe, we'll probably always want land.

We've moved three times in the past 5 years... in adulthood, I've moved 7 times... which means, if you break it down, my 8 year old has moved once for every year of her life. Sucks. (Actually, the kids now love moving because it's been so 'normal' for them, LOL!!)

Anyway, we've been in this house for 2 1/2 years, and plan to stay, unfortunately, for at least another 2 1/2. It's so small... but financially, it's working out really well for us right now!! This is the longest we've stayed in one place as a married couple/family.

16 years and no plans to move. My husband doesn't like change, amongst other reasons, and we didn't want to uproot the kids from their schools and neighborhood. We've done some remodeling instead.

6 1/2 yrs in this home. Still love it.
Town home for 10 months while it was being built.
Just over 7 yrs in the home previous to this one.

Before that, we rented an apartment for a year, then continued on a month-to-month for 5 months while our first house was being built. Before that, I had an apartment for 2 years. Before that, I shared a house (rental) with a friend of mine for 2 1/2 years. Before that was a string of 1 yr contracts with roommates/apartments after moving out of the college dorms.
As a child, we moved 7 times from the time of my birth to graduating from high school. Most of those were before I was school aged. Then twice were rentals while my parents were building a house or feeling out an area before deciding where to buy.
For the majority of my remembered childhood, though, we lived in the same place. From mid-way through 1st grade, to midway through 10th grade. That will always be my "childhood home".... Even though my folks have gone on to move a few more times and finally built their "retirement home", and put "my" room in the basement with all my old childhood furniture still in it. lol
We don't plan on moving anytime soon. It's a lot of work, and we really like our house/neighborhood.

Almost 12 years and this is just our second home in our 23 year marriage.
Since we didn't have to move for a job transfer or anything, we house hunted for 2 years before we found this house. It has everything we were looking for and I love this house. We even thought enough ahead, that for all practical purposes, my husband and I never have to leave the main floor. So we have no plans to move.

7 LONG years.... I am ready to move :)

16 years - back when a young person with an average salary could still buy a home in this region!

It used to be a weekend place, but I left the city and now live here full-time. I don't miss the expense of the city or the hassle of having 2 households. I love this little house.

Now I've had it long enough to start replacing things twice! I've already had to buy a furnace 2x. What's next?

We have been on our property for 9+ years ~ bought a single wide and moved it onto the property when we got married. Saved $ and had our house built a little over 3 years ago. We have no plans to move ~ ever.
When I was in elementary we lived in 6 places.
Jr. High only 2.
High School 3.
After high school and until I got married I lived in 8 places and had my own apartment for 5 years before getting married.
See why I don't want to ever move again?! :)

Oh my gosh, some one else like me, but you seem to have a happy go lucky attitude to go with it.

I have moved 33 times in my life.
I have moved 17 times with kids.
I have lived in my current home 1 year, we're renting due to a new position, new town, new country and wanted to get our bearings if we buy.

We will probably not buy, due to my crankiness over all the moves, but I am planning on finding a retirement home / cabin, so that when my hubs does take on another more challenging position, he can go and I can stay put. We'll have a long distance relationship.

P.S. We are coming to Wash DC this Thur, NOV 10-15....with kids. Any tips? We're staying downtown in the Westin, Center Street.

Good question. We have lived in our house for 9 years! I can't believe it. Only planned on 5 years. But it's worked out well. It's time for upgrades now however. We don't have granite countertops, energy efficient appliances or wood floors. Those things are standard now at least in this part of the country. So do me our house feels dated, but I love it. It's where we brought our babies home to after they were born. As someone who grew up moving every 2-3 years and carried that into young adulthood, it feels good to have now been in a place for a while....and the best part? I don't feel antsy, I want to stay in this house for a long time.

12 years!

And my once *perfect* house (that is exactly 34 yrs old, same as me) is starting to show its age...and we are running low on the funds for its upkeep! Poor *sad* house!

Well in my current home 2 1/2 years. I lived in the same house growing up, for 24 years. When I got married, I moved into my husbands house that he already had. We lived there for 5 years more, then moved to another house that we lived in for 13 years. Now we live in this one.

12 years and counting in current home, would love a newer home but do not want property taxes to go up anymore.
Almost 3 in the condo we bought just before we got married.
Many moves during college and a few after.
Glad we have stayed in one place for the 10 + years.

It will be 6 years in December. we put alot of money, time, sweat, & tears into our house when we renovated so we won't be moving anytime soon. However, why would I want to since doing the renovation gave me the kitchen I always wanted so I'm here to stay for as long as I can.

I've live in my home for 30+ years with a 6 year period of time in the middle when I lived in AZ. My daughter went to all 6 years of grade school in the same school but then was in middle school at the coast and the rest of middle school in two different schools and then all of high school in on in AZ.

She's now lived in her apartment for 11 years and her daughter is in the 6th grade in the same school her mother attended. The plan is for her to finish middle school in the same school. High school might be in a different district because my daughter and her husband are looking to buy.

Even when I lived in AZ my house in Portland was still mine with my stuff in it. My cousin rented it for cheap as a house sitter.

I was fortunate that even as a child we didn't move often. I lived in 6 different homes from the time I was 5 until I graduated high school. Six homes in 14 years. Whoops! Guess that is often. I was a shy girl and had difficulty finding friends with each move.

I love having been in this house all these years. It does give me and my daughter and grandchildren a sense of stability. My granddaughter wants me to leave the house to her when I die. lol Before buying this house I'd lived in 8 different homes,as an adult, in 17 years.

Wow! My husband and I have been married for 15 years and lived in 2 places. We have been in our current house for 13 years, with no plans to move!! :-)

I grew up living in the same home the whole time from the day I was born until a few days after my 20th birthday.

Hubby and I lived in 3 different apartments all within 4 blocks of each other, LOL. First 2 were were bf/gf..then we got married and moved again. Then we lived with some friends for about 6 mos (rented part of their basement)...it ended quickly, then we lived in this fantastic little studio apartment in an older building for about a year. It was great for us as we were never home, and it was $300 a month for rent! Then we bought our house and have been here 18 years as of Thanksgiving weekend. My daughter went to one elementary school...one middle school and now 2 highschools, but that was by choice (she applied for and was accepted into an Arts High School for her Jr and now Sr years).

Oh..and that house I grew up in....my brother who is a year older than me...he STILL lives there..never left...and is raising his children there. They go to the same catholic school we went to as kids. He has had the same address from the day he was born (over 43 years). Pretty cool, huh?

This home in VA 15 months
NC---4 years
VA---3 years
CA---2 years
NC---3 years
IL---First house 10 yrs
moved next house 17 years
married first apt 1 year
first house 3 years

7 years in our townhome - the intent was to live there for about 3-5 years then purchase a home with a yard, etc. Now that our home is worth half of what we purchased it for we're kind of stuck. I see so many awesome deals on very cute homes and it makes me sad!

I bought this house 3 years ago.......BUT.......it was the house i grew up in for my first 17 years of life..........so technically ive lived in it 20 years out of my 30 years of life. I love this house.

Almost 13 yrs. The longest I have lived in any place. I have had 16 different residences, all in TX.

I moved a lot as a kid. Longest was about 8 years through middle/high school.

We have lived in this home for 8 years and DH owned it for a few years before that.

I lived in 1 house as a child until I got married at 19. Have lived in our current house from the time we got married, now just over 30 years. My husband has lived in this house his whole life (52 years). The summer we were getting married, his parents built a house next door and moved there, so we rented this house for years, now owning it. With it being his homeplace, we don't plan to ever move.

We bought our house 7 years ago :0) I was 26

I lived in one home till I was 18 and my parents are still there and just celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary.After I moved out I moved 5 times in 2 years.
Lived with my Aunt for 1 month, my grandmother for almost a year, lived with my husband and his parents for a couple months till we found an apartment to rent and stayed there for just over a year. We have now owned our own home for the last 9 yrs come December. But we are planning on moving from here in the next couple years into a bigger home.

Meanwhile my husband has moved all over the place just like yourself. He was born in Hawaii, moved to Ohio, to Virginia back to Ohio then to PA. Before he was 8 years old, he was in a total of 7 different schools. Once his mom retired from the Navy they stayed in Pa and was able to make it thru high school staying in the same place. Needless to say he wants to make sure our kids dont have to go thru the same thing.

We have lived in our home for 11 years. We lived in our last house for 10 years. Those are the only homes we have lived in for the 21 years we've been married. As a child, I lived in one house and two apartments over 19 years and then had my own apartment (just one) for four years, so I've lived in six homes in 44 years.

I moved once when I was a kid, at 16. But my parents purposely purchased in the same school district I grew up in and I never changed schools. I "moved out" to my college town in a dorm for the first year and the same apartment until graduation. I then moved back with my parents and lived with them until I got married at 24. My husband and I bought our house when we got married and have been here for the past 6 years. So, I've lived in a grand total of 3 houses if you don't count college. :)

Grew up n lived in same house for 24 years. Married and living
here 40 years.