apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

no, in fact, there is so much maintenance that goes into the house, i would think that homeowners who actually have to diy in the yard, and in the house, probably end up burning more calories than the average renter.

Is working on one's house not considered exercising? Because my legs hurt for days after painting, and I thought I was going to die after putting together bookshelves last night.

Do male renters weigh less too?

As a brand new homeowner, I agree with the weight, I have packed on about 10lbs, but this is in part due to a comfort level and busy doing more things at home rather than getting out and hiking and practicing in my new kitchen. BUT - homeownership is 1,000 times better than renting, I am happier than I have ever been in my life, settled, content and proud of myself for waiting and being diligent and buying the perfect place for me. I will take the 10lbs (hoping to be rid of it though) small price to pay for having this fabulous place that is MINE!!!

I suspect that the difference can be accounted for by age. It takes time to save up for a down payment on a home, so women who own are generally older than those who rent.

I find it strange that this article makes no mention whatsoever about men.

Ugh. Your house has nothing to do with how much you weigh. What you eat and how much you exercise (not including any medical conditions) dictate how much you weigh. Whether you own or rent your house has absolutely nothing to do with your weight... your attitude towards your own health, yes maybe, but you can always change/fix that... owning or renting is not an excuse.

from the article: "But Bucchianeri's study demonstrates that when the data is controlled for a range of variables, including whether the women had children, the difference in contentment between renters and owners vanishes."

Many women who own do so because they have children and it sucks to be bumped around all the time with kids in tow. Children require a lot of time and can be another variable in the decreased leisure and social time.

One thing I learned long ago when I took statistics is numbers can be made to say anything you want them to. I am female, recently became a home owner, and while my weight is identical to what it has been for over a decade, I am much happier with my surroundings. Perhaps the DIY inclination factor was not accounted for in this test. I'm sure people who don't even know how to hammer a nail are never very happy about the reality of home ownership. But I actually found it aggravating to feel like it was a waste of time and money to make upgrades to an apartment that someone else owned.

My first thought was whether the study controlled for things like age, life stage (married? kids? etc.?), income level, etc. I think weight could be causally correlated with any of these things, so unless the study had a credible way of trying to account for them, I wouldn't put much stock in it.

On a personal note, though, I will say how I could see that might be true. While I have not gained weight after owning a home, my fitness level has certainly gone down. When I rented, I was in school, had flexible days, lived alone or with a roommate, exercised, played team sports, etc. Now that I own, I'm more than a few years older, have had my first child, have a very full-time job, eat more convenience foods, and certainly do not have time for things like team sports or regular exercise (although I do build it in where I can, like walking the 15 minutes between my parking garage and office building as fast as possible--I'm always running late!--and then walking the 13 flights of stairs up to my office rather than taking the elevator).

As ridiculous as it sounds, my life will confirm every part of this true. And I'm a mid 20 something urbanite...bought a condo less than a year ago, my social life is near absent & haven't worked out a week after I bought the place.

Having just bought a house, I look forward to not only gaining some freedom, the chance to do some good hard work, AND the 12 pounds.

and why did they focus this study on women?

this seems backwards to me - I am sitting on my butt in my rental waiting to get my hands on something I have an investment interest in so I can do some real manual labor on the place. of course, I don't fill my leisure time with exercise. interesting conclusion, though.

I think that this might have more to do with age and lifestyle than renting/owning.

Most of the people I know who own their own place are married, and having kids. They're also in their late twenties/early thirties. Age, pregnancy, and small children = no six pack abs

The people I know who rent are usually not married or newly weds, with no kids, and a lot of free time.

I wonder if the split has anything to do with homeowners being house-owners and renters being apartment-renters or not.

Or the correlation between homeowners that do and do not have children, etc.

There seem to be a million factors here... homeownership is obviously not causal. Sheesh.

Please--the cooking blog here is all obsessed with dietary fat, so let's not start here too. What does it matter how much someone weighs? Is this a design site or not?

I'm surprised they don't address a potential Spurious Relationship (misleading correlation between renting and weight that is actually due to a third factor...age, income, location, etc, etc, etc). Seems like incomplete research.

i weigh less now that i own...although i am in a condo. i agree that the maintenance gives me extra incentive to work on things and use energy.

>Ugh. Your house has nothing to do with how much you weigh. What you eat and how much you exercise.

Your house does have something to do with it. Not necessarily whether you own or rent, but it's location. One would think that someone who lived in a walkable/bikeable neighborhood would be more fit and weigh less than someone who lived in a car-dependent neighborhood. For years when have "moved up to buying" they have moved to the suburbs and bought in developments that have been poorly planned for getting anywhere except by car.

I don't know if this study took into account renters/owners in the same neighborhood.

i think its nonsense. like others have said i think the weight difference has more to do with lifestyle, age, etc. we just closed on our first home a week and a half ago, and if weight gain comes i'll gladly take it over renting someone elses home for the rest of my life. i don't understand why all this research goes into who weighs what and why! its simple; calories in vs calories burned, and perhaps some other medical reasons- but not renting vs owning!

i can see how stress can become an issue if you are taking under renovation projects like we are, but a great deal of gratification also comes with it as you improve your home. i've been stressed, but in the past week we have already redone our staircase, painted the upstairs bedrooms, replaced the doors and trim upstairs, and fenced the yard with some help from our family! if anything i think all these projects will help me drop some pounds!

Obviously, women should rent until they find a big strong man to buy them a house, or they'll become shut-ins, gain a whopping dozen pounds and be too fat (or is it too independent) to be loved. Nice try, institute of sexist asshattery. How is this research helpful? GAG!

I just wanted to address an obvious point that is being overlooked by many people leaving comments. The researches found that home owners weighed more and carried around a higher lever of aggression "after controlling for all kinds of demographic characteristics, their financial situation, how many children they have and so on." Although, this is not made as clear as it should be in this particular article, the original paper this was taken from "The American Dream or The American Delusion? The Private and External Benefits of Homeownership" (Bucchianeri) definitively states this.
No modern day researcher would "forget" to factor in such obvious variations.

Here's another "fact": Women who renovate their home and live without a kitchen for a friggin' year also weigh more.

Ugh...

hah, I remember when I saw the posted earlier, and there were no comments... I couldn't wait to see what people would say. It definitely didn't disappoint! I think it's pure BS. Why wouldn't someone at home lose more weight anyway vs. renting. People are right, you WILL have to do more work around the house. I just don't understand WHY they had to do this "study."

Lame!

I'm almost dumbfounded. Is there no part of American life that need not be suffused with anxiety about women's bodies? Their girth, their prettiness or lack thereof? I sometimes truly feel that most important thing you can be in this culture is a physical ideal of thinness and attractiveness, regardless of anything else you can accomplish.

rbn987 is right to call this a spurious correlation. This is just an example of an academic fishing through her data to find an angle that will draw attention to her study. The "weight gain" angle ensures the study will get publicity -- all so-called news about obesity gets publicity. It is a stunt. Maybe she wants more grant money.

I don't buy it.

Since buying our house I have gotten more exercise from the maintenance and DIY projects than I ever did as a renter.

This is probably about location. Renting downtown and walking everywhere vs buying in the burbs and driving everywhere. That's not my situation but might be the real reason behind this silly study.

I don't weigh more than I did when I was a renter, but I definitely have more aggravation regarding my home. While I'm happy to have a place of my own, I spend a lot of the time in it thinking about what needs to be fixed or updated, and feeling varying degrees of guilt, shame and frustration about deferred maintenance.

i saw nothing in the article that made any distinction as to whether these are single women or women in a relationship. studies have shown that both men and women in relationships tend to gain more weight than those who are single, and it makes me wonder whether they are comparing single women in apartments to women in a long term relationship who cohabit a house.

regardless, without seeing the study itself i have to disagree with it. since becoming a homeowner i have a yard which i have to mow weekly (with my manual push reel mower), not to mention keep up on the garden and all the other projects around the house. snow in the winter? i'm out there shoveling...but then again i am a single female in a house.

Just a quick note that "under review" means that the article has not been through the peer review process at this point and has not been accepted for publication. No, one can't make statistics say anything. The real test of the argument though, is whether the causal explanation the authors are putting forward is robust.

It IS incomplete disclosure of the research results! and implying causation when one doesn't truly exist. I expect more from you Wharton. We wouldn't do such shady analysis at Georgetown MBA.

Now that my condo (which I'm buying) is on the bike path and has a gym on the first floor, I'm thinner than I was in my rental.

Plus, I'm not a diyer - I hire someone to do the fix-up tasks - so in my case your theories are incorrect.

This is flat-out idiotic, and VERY bad advice for any woman in the position to consider buying.

Home ownership is the primary base of wealth in this country. People who do not own homes are far more likely to end up with severe economic problems then people who do (owning is not a panacea against problems, of course, but statistically home ownership is how the majority of people in this country accumulate wealth). Women are paid less than men for equal work, women bear the brunt of expenses for child care and elder care. So if women can possibly own homes, that will have far greater positive impact on their health - and their ability to, say, pay for health insurance - than what they weigh. And emphasizing weight loss as a good result of renting is a sexist way to advocate a systemic increase in the wealth gap.

I think it has to do with urban vs. suburban life style. I drive to work and everywhere else.

Agree with all that's been said - This study sounds like a classic case of a miscorrelation.. (to get a reaction out of the public, no doubt.)

You might as well post research findings like "females who like to play with dolls are statistically more likely to weigh less and have fewer wrinkles." That's another statistical "truth", right...?

This article is just frigging offensive.

Gobsmacked that you bothered to post this.

First I think you need to look at what the income levels and the ages of the women are. If they are younger then they are probably just starting their professional life and have less income - hence the need to rent.

If they are older they probably have the income to qualify for a house payment and sadly with the age comes the possibility of increased weight.

Like others have said statics can say what ever you want them too-you have to really analyze the demographics of who they interviewed as well as consider the geographic area they live in as well---
very disappointing and somewhat offensive.

@erica: in other words, this study is completely bogus! haha, I love it. Yet another example of the yawning gap between academic study and press releases.

I imagine owners are older, have children, and are married, whereas renters are younger, don't have children, and are single--those demographics have the weight disparity.

Maybe people, overall, who own their homes have a higher income and fan afford to eat out more or eat richer foods than those on studio budgets. Who knows?

This has to be the dumbest thing I've heard!

My first thought was also that the study was not accounting for things like marital status, age, income, etc., but the article clearly states that they controlled for all kinds of demographics, including income and number of children.

Assuming this was done correctly, this means the differences exist even among similar women (age 30 married with one child who owns vs. age 30 married with one child who rents). So I'm not sure what you folks are getting at...

Correlation is not causation.
And I even have a college textbook called "How to lie with statistics."

I'd like to see a similar study done on both men and women and properly peer reviewed. A broad geographic selection would help to account for rural vs city dynamics etc (e.g. an area where almost all rentals are urban apts and most owned places are single-family homes versus a selection of single-family homes that are similar or condos vs apartments).

For anecdotal information, I purchased a home 4 months ago. With no other major changes in my life (same work, same schedule, same city, same relationship status etc), I find that I am more active both working out like running and indirect exercise like mowing that dang lawn. Its also LESS of a financial stress and LESS stress due to things going wrong (better built home, more competent "landlord")

I agree with the city vs. suburb comments, but there's also another possibility. I've read (and fully believe) that "live-in kitchens" -- the big open kitchens with eating space, home office, etc. -- cause a weight gain of 10 pounds because people are constantly in the kitchen and thus constantly snacking.

oooh, that first sentence rubbed me the wrong way. it implies that your very important life decision to buy a residence or not should be influenced by twelve pounds... because, of course, any woman would rather be slim than a homeowner!

the study is rather silly, though I would be interested in corresponding male data for curiosity's sake.

Uh. Home maintenance IS a leisure activity for this here woman (and I'm still the same weight as when I rented). I bought an apartment specifically so that I *could* enjoy working on it!

And ditto on all the "how to lie with statistics" comments. This one sounds like a doozy. (I don't suppose it was financed by an association of landlords? ;-) )

I can understand the negative feelings attached-- it's way easier to blame the landlord/the roommate/the crappy carpet you're stuck with for an unpleasant living situation than it is to blame yourself. With homeownership, you're all you've got.

At the same time, I wonder about the kind of person who chooses to buy a house-- not really a demographic issue. If you're traveling a lot, for example, it's unlikely you'll buy. Maybe there's a cultural issue going on too, not easily identified with demographic info.

"my life will confirm every part of this true"

No, your life provides a small bit of anecdotal evidence in support of the study's conclusions. It doesn't confirm anything.

This may be a spurious (false) relationship. Were the home owners also living in the suburbs? I read about a recent study that said men who live in the burbs weight about 10 lbs more, and suburbinite women weight about 6 lbs more than their city counterparts. For this study, they pointed at walkable neighborhoods as the contributing factor to increased weight.

"No, your life provides a small bit of anecdotal evidence in support of the study's conclusions. It doesn't confirm anything."

Just like all of the anecdotal evidence that contradicts the results don't prove anything either.

I haven't read the original article to see exactly what factors are accounted for. And, of course, an observational study can only detect a correlation, not a causation. However, many comments seem to be rejecting the results just because it doesn't match what they believe!

More fat shaming.

http://www.gettogethablog.com

Interesting article and it's clearly a sumation of one that's under review by her peers so I have a feeling a lot of it may not hold water, but from my own observation from people I know that owning or not owning a home is largely due to location and how much physical exercise one gets, be it working in the yard or walking, or driving everywhere.

Living in the suburbs, be it rental or home ownership will most likely contribute to weight gain, especially when it's not conducive to walking more than a block or two to shop etc and thus the car is required for most things.

Secondly, when you have a kid or two (or more), a lot of time is taken up with dealing with them and their needs and wants, let alone any housework that needs doing.

I find that some of the most obese people tend to be ones with families in general although even there, that's not always a given.

Food, what one eats and their proportions eaten and that has some bearing on one's age, but more than anything, it's related to exercise (or the lack there of) and portion size and fat consumption at each meal. If one is eating at fast food joints several times a week, then has dinner out at least once a week and does not do any exercise and just sits on the couch in the evenings watching TV, then yeah, one will get fat, apartment rental living or no.

But I'd wager that if you live in the suburbs where the car is the modus of transportation then more likely one will be heavier.

Best friends own a house, have one kid and rent out 2 others and yet, both are on the chubby side and I doubt David has a hobby to relax and enjoy to destress over and he's busy as hell working full time (so does his wife Amy) and then there is their son, now almost 5.5 YO. and they live in the suburb and both in their early 40's.

I live in the city in a 4 floor walkup, mid 40's and am in a job where walking is a major part of the job, I walk all over the place, to the store etc and yet in the past year or year and a half, I've gained some weight (some of that is muscle due to the job) and I don't go to the gym either but I am NOT overweight by any stretch.

I should say, I rent my 4th floor walk up.

i moved into my house 8 months ago.

since then i've lost more than 50 pounds.

hmmmm....

I rent in a city, and own a home that I don't live in in another town - I have to top up the mortage payments because people expect to pay small rents in smaller towns and I have two hollow legged teenagers to feed. Yup, you guessed it - I've lost weight, 'cause I'm broke. Wonder if those home ownin' women folk who is packin' on the pounds has filthy rich menfolk or real high class jobs what pays up big.

This is the most sexist load of crap I've ever read.

I don't enjoy seeing this article highlighted here. As other commenters have pointed out, why does this focus on women. The inference seems to be that women are meant to be decorative. There seems to be an unexamined assumption that weigh more = bad, weigh less = good. I don't see the difference between this and some article about getting a great bikini body. Like I said, maybe if it included men...

On average, they are probably older. Many women gain weight as they age.

Ok, seriously? Did everyone read the entire article here before they started posting comments? I'm with Julia29 - these are researchers who study statistics and correllations ALL THE TIME. Do you really think they over looked obvious factors like age, relationship status, children, location of home, race, and then submitted their study to peer scrutiny? That would be an embarrasment, and no academic would do that.

Also, this study focuses on women because women and men gain weight differently, and mixing those groups would make the data completely meaningless. For those who are interested, the data probably exists to do a similar study on the male population and see if a similar pattern exisits. And nothing here said the relationship was causal, simply correllated.

Based on my own experience, this has been exactly the case, and my relationship status, children in household, and town/neighborhood of residence have not changed. Since buying our house in 2006 I have stopped going to the gym because I can't afford it, I don't run on the weekends anymore because I'm gardening, and we have a larger kitchen so there seem to be more places to stash convenience foods.

Also, the stress level associated with home, for me, has increased greatly. Because money is tight due to the huge difference between our mortgage and the last rent we paid (more than double), we can't do all the things to the house that we envisioned when we bought the place, and that makes me feel like an inadeqate home owner, i.e. we've owned the house for 3 years and the front fence is STILL rotting and falling down, and we haven't been able to fix it because we had to buy a new roof and windows instead. Not exactly the satisfaction of homeownership I'd been seeking.

I'm not self concious about the extra weight, and wouldn't trade my garden for a gym membership. It's just a fact, and I think it's interesting that it might be a trend. That's it, interesting, not inflammatory or outrageous or concerning. Just interesting.

I'm curious about the males gaining weight, too. Another reason to rent! One would think that being in a building with an elevator as opposed to a home with stairs would contribute to weight gain. The last apartment I lived in had a gym and was closer to downtown, so I walked more instead of using public transportation or driving. My current apartment comes with a free gym membership and there is a sneaker store located in the complex. Every Saturday morning and during weeknights, the owner has a "Resident Run" which features a brutal workout. It really depends on the kind of community you live in.