# How many houses have you lived in? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 23, 2025, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286 "2025-01-23T09:50:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/101 "2025-01-25T03:16:07Z")
Let’s see… New Zealand: 1969 -1976 - Family Home 1976 = house fire 1976 - 1988 - Rebuilt Family Home 1989 = moved into the city 1989 - Dormitories 1989 - Share House 1989 - 1990 - Share House 1990 - 1995 - Share House 1995 - 1996 - Share House 1996 - 1999 - Share House 1999 = moved to… Australia: 1999 - 2001 - Share House 2001 - 2002 - Apartment 2002 - 2008 - Apartment 2008 - 2013 - Cottage Unit 2013 - 2021 - Share House 2021 - 2025 - Unit Total: **14** ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/102 "2025-01-25T03:20:14Z")
1. I’m 58. ---
**Author:** ![Dinoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de0a6/32.png) [@Dinoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinoguy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/103 "2025-01-25T03:28:51Z")
I’m 81. I count 8 residences, but the one I grew up in was the longest - 1944 to 1970 - and the one I remember most as"home." Pier and beam, detached garage with storage houses. Last time I heard about it from a relative, they tore it down and built anapartment house. Lot of memories. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/104 "2025-01-25T03:30:02Z")
I am going to exclude dorm rooms (1 for me) and limit my count to houses + apartments. I am 72, from birth: 7 in 4 states. Closely following the OP: 4 houses. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/105 "2025-01-25T03:35:35Z")
How about this extension to the OP: what is the largest % of your entire life you have spent in 1 house, excluding apartments but counting rental homes. ie, if you lived in your parents only house until 20, and you are now 39 years old: 51%. or should this be a new thread. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/106 "2025-01-25T05:44:07Z")
Turns out I forgot a couple, so make my count 37 in total. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/107 "2025-01-25T06:31:23Z")
Outside of my mission, I have lived in three houses in America, eight apartments or houses in Japan and two houses in Taiwan for a total of 13 places. I went on a 18-month LDS mission to Japan when I was 20. The mission was for 18 months, and I stayed at a dorm in the Missionary Training Center for two months, but everything was so structured and busy that it wasn’t normal life. On my mission, I lived in six places in five cities for periods between one to five months. If I count all of those, that adds seven more to the total. Total of 20 places, but more like 16, if I don’t count the really short time stays. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/108 "2025-01-25T11:37:14Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > what is the largest % of your entire life you have spent in 1 house > [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > I count 25 actual homes total. Of these homes the one I live in now has been the longest at 12 years, so 12 years out of 63 years is 19%. I’ll be selling it in April, it been a good run. What kind of suprised me was that I have now lived in Michigan for 24 years, or 38% of my life! I grew in Ohio and attended The Ohio State University, so I never even dreamed that I’d live in “enemy” territory for so long and actually enjoy it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/109 "2025-01-25T12:22:35Z")
Wow ! Where have you been for the last 21 years ?! ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/110 "2025-01-25T15:50:30Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > How about this extension to the OP: what is the largest % of your entire life you have spent in 1 house, excluding apartments but counting rental homes. 52%. I have now lived in this house for just over half of my life. Some part of my head still thinks “home” is the place I grew up in (which gets 25%). But I’m very much at home here. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/111 "2025-01-25T19:31:40Z")
Many of you are counting things I’m not. I’m only counting houses and apartments I’ve lived in permanently. Not dorm rooms or barracks that I was assigned. I wouldn’t even be able to remember all of those. With those parameters my number is six. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/112 "2025-01-25T23:55:19Z")
I’m counting pretty much everything where I had a mailing address and registered to vote. That includes the year I was in a dorm. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2025, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/113 "2025-01-26T09:18:02Z")
If you don’t live there now, they weren’t permanent then, either. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2025, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/114 "2025-01-26T11:50:03Z")
While facilely true, IMO that’s a bit of a off-topic tautology. The living situation in the military is not really comparable to any civilian experience except maybe ~4 years of college living in dorms and going home (or elsewhere) for the summers. IOW, lots of turbulence and the clear understanding as you’re moving in that moving back out is both imminent and certain. Each of us can choose to count our college and military years as we will. Which was why I broke out my own count as I did. Perhaps a better word than “permanent” is “long-term”. As contrasted with “temporary”. Although that dichotomy has its own difficulties, suggesting that a “temporary” vs. “long-term” residence is someplace you live while also maintaining the same long-term residence with intent to return. Like a person on a sabbatical living overseas for 6 months while still paying rent / mortgage on their long-term home in their country of citizenship. IMO the real bottom line / edge case is how to handle multiple residences at the same time and in the case of having exactly one residence, “How long there is long enough to include in the lifetime count: a day, a week, a month, 6 months, a year?” ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2025, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/115 "2025-01-26T16:00:14Z")
I’m not sure about places we lived when I was under 3. There was a lot of moving in that era. Since then, 7 houses and 2 apartments (college days). The longest was for 35 years. 4 years at the new place. My kids have each lived in more places than that in less time since college. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/116 "2025-01-26T17:44:25Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > If you don’t live there now, they weren’t permanent then, either. I always had a home of record. I lived in the barracks in Germany but my home of record was in New Jersey. I had no say in where I lived or who I lived with. They moved me many times to many barracks rooms. My home of record remained in New Jersey. The OP talks about places he paid rent to live in. I don’t count my time in barracks any more than when I stayed at a hotel or lived in a tent for a month at Fort Irwin. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2025, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/117 "2025-01-27T05:28:20Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > How about this extension to the OP: what is the largest % of your entire life you have spent in 1 house, excluding apartments but counting rental homes. Creeping towards 50% in my current home. I’ll turn 60 in late March; a few days after that will be the 29th anniversary of us moving into the house. So, 48%, at this point. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/118 "2025-01-27T16:32:35Z")
I’m at 37% in my current house. The next closest is one of my childhood houses which comes in at 11% ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2025, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/119 "2025-01-27T19:21:41Z")
Current house: 43% next highest is 31% Brian ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2025, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286/120 "2025-01-27T23:52:34Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > How about this extension to the OP: what is the largest % of your entire life you have spent in 1 house Does it count if I lived in the same house two separate times but the second time I lived in it the house was in a different location from the first time I lived in it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-houses-have-you-lived-in/1013286.md?page=7)