I’m 73, and have lived in 28 places, counting dorm rooms.
Between 1974 and 1979, I lived in eight houses over five years. From 1988 to present, I’ve only lived in 3!
10 for me, including college dorms, at age 44:
1 Parents’ house from 0-college
5 college dorm rooms (all but one in the same building).
3 Apartments (1 pretty crappy, 2 fairly nice)
1 House
My parents are the sort to buy a house, and then live in it for decades until it’s paid off. And now it looks like I’m following in their footsteps.
For me, I’ve had 21 different addresses in my 56 years. This includes:
- 11 in childhood, living in Texas, Germany, California, Texas (again), Tennessee, and Illinois. My father was a doctor doing his residency, and then I was an Army “brat”, so we moved around a lot. This number includes living at my grandparents’ house in Houston three different times, but I only counted it once.
- 1 in college living in my dorm, followed by my grandparents’ house once again (but I didn’t count it again)
- 9 since college in Florida, upstate New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Connecticut (again). I was in the U.S. Navy, so most of these moves were related to that.
I’ve now lived in the same house for the last 20 years. I moved so much when I was younger that I don’t really feel like moving again.
ETA: Add 2 more if we’re counting different dorm rooms in college (but all were in the same building). And I lived at my grandparents’ house in Houston six (6) different times from the time of my birth through college (only counted once above). That was actually the only consistent house I remember from childhood since we were constantly moving.
So my grand total increases to as much as 29 moves / residence changes.
Lessee, and if we count both flats and houses…
I’m 43 FTR.
I was born in a house that I don’t remember. So house #1. I don’t even know where it was/is.
Moved to house #2 when I was ?? I have some vague memories of #2, many of which I’ve been told are not accurate or correct.
By the time my brother was born when I was 4 ½, we lived in house #3.
Moved into house #4 when I was 5. Lived there until I met my now wife when I was 19 and moved in with her – for both of us, our first time living on our own. That was place #5.
Stayed there for a year or two until we moved to a dilapidated mobile home in the countryside. One of the OG mobile homes – it still had a trailer hitch on the front and license plate on the back. Total POS place to live but the setting was idyllic. I actually liked living there, but my wife hated it. Lived there for a couple of years. Home #6.
Moved to house #7 for reasons that elude me now. Probably my wife’s choice. We lived there for… shit. Uhhh… about 5 years, I guess. Tiny, quirky house that I can’t imagine living in now but at the time it suited us. Both our kids were born in that house.
By 2009 the recession was in full swing and a) I was out of a job and b) my parents wanted to move but could not sell their house. So we moved back to the house I grew up in to act as sort of caretakers for the place until the economy improved. So house #8 (or 7, if you don’t count living in the same house two different times as two different moves). Stayed there for 3 or 4 years. We moved out when my brother agreed to take over. So we moved to house number #9. Stayed for a year or two. The landlords were absolutely awful and refused to fix anything or even diagnose problems which led to the house being unlivable (long ranty story). They agreed to rent us another house they owned, across the street, with no new deposits. We took them up on their offer – we had no choice, really. House # 10. Tiny, tiny house with minimal heat and mold in the cupboards and bathroom and no storage whatsoever. It wasn’t big enough for 2 people let alone 4. The front porch was actively rotting out from underneath our feet. It had shitty, asshole neighbors and was smack in the middle of a shitty neighborhood. Did I mention that it was owned by the same worthless slumlords that owned the previous house that they refused to maintain? They had the same neglectful approach to this house, naturally. I had to pay to fix the stove and replace the toilet. By far the worst house we’ve ever lived in. Stayed there for a year before moving to a much better but still not great house during the pandemic. House #11.
All of the above houses/apartments were rentals. We finally we bought a house in 2021 and have lived there ever since. We had saved up a huge down payment and had to pay about $20K over asking, something people mocked us for while pontificating on how we’d been scammed. But we locked in a 3% mortgage, pay less than $900/month on a house that would rent for $2500/month (if we bought the same house today at today’s assessed value with the same down payment but at today’s rates our mortgage would be ~$2700/month,) and after just 3 1/2 years have a LTV of 55% so who’s laughing now? House #12. It may not be the house we live in forever, but we like it a lot, have some plans for a remodel, and have no plans whatsoever to move. If/when we get to the point we can’t handle stairs then we’ll have a hard decision to make. But until then we’re staying put.
So, 12 houses/flats.
I went back to college while we lived in houses #9 & 10. For each of the two years I was in school I had a small flat on the edge of campus where I stayed during the week and drove home on the weekends. Different flats each year. I don’t really count those, but if so then it would be 14 different houses/flats in 43 years.
My wife lived in 6 different houses before she moved in with me, so for her it’s 13 in 45 years. Oddly enough she’s only lived in one flat, the first place we had together.
0-1 House (parents rented I think)
2-12 House (parents owned)
12-18 House (parents owned)
18-21 dorms (I’ll count as one but I moved every three months)
22 Chicago apartment
23-26 Law School dorms (2)
27 rented house in Seattle (first wife)
28 rented room in house (separation and divorce)
29 rental house with second wife
30 another rental house with second wife
31-32 first owned house
33-38 subsequent house
39 rented houseboat (separation and divorce)
40 rented condo
41 rented house
41 purchased house
42-63 purchased current house
17, but that doesn’t count hotels I’ve stayed at for more than 30 days, and a lot of living situations that were 2 to 3 months. Heck, I lived in a tent on the Appalachian Trail for 2 months.
Low 60’s. 23-27 depending on criteria. Most of that is bunched up until my mid-20s. My house before this one was 24 years.
10 residences, not including a friend I crashed with for 6 weeks and another for 2 weeks. I’ve been in my current house for 38 years. 68 yrs old.
I’m 73, and my count is 15
- Where I grew up. We never moved
2, 3 - two places we lived in the Congo, a temporary apartment while they got rid of the squatter in the house we wanted to rent and then the house - Dorm at MIT, all four years
- Dorm at Illinois, 1 year
- Apartment in Champaign I rented
- Crappy room in Lafayette, Louisiana for a week
- Apartment in Laffayette until I got married
- Rented house in Lafayette after I got married
- Home we bought in Lafayette
- Apartment in Princeton
12, 13 - two sides of a house we rented
14 - house we bought in NJ
15 - house we bought in California
10 years for the house in NJ, 28 years for the house I’m living in now so we’re moving less.
10 homes. I’m 63. I didn’t count a vacation cottage my family owned, as it was never more than a vacation.
Oops! 11. I forgot those few months when I lived with my brother. Mistake.
StG
Eight.
- Birth to age 14
- Age 14-15 temporary lodging with Mom’s relatives while newer house purchase got delayed
- 15-19 Last house with my parents
- 19-23 Married, our first and only rental house
- 23- 50 Our first owned house (stayed here 27 years, coincidentally a half-mile from the hospital I was born in)
- 50-54 Our second house (about five miles from the previous one)
<Finally left San Diego, moved 1300 miles due North and by chance only 15 miles West, to one of Idaho’s two small Liberal cities>
- 54-55 Our third house, temporary while we looked for a
- 55-74 Fourth house. Here 19 years to date, staying for good unless Assisted Living becomes necessary.
I count 19. Four while living with my parents (one rented apartment, one rented house, two owned houses), which included my first 3 years at college as a commuter. Three rentals on campus, one for only 3 months until the heating season started and the steam heat coming on at 5AM every morning made sleep impossible. My roommate found his own apt., while I moved back home. That worked out well since my mother helped type my thesis. Then an apt. in NYC, after which I married and we spent three months in a rental in Greenwich, CT. Then a rental apt. in Urbana, IL and a house in Champaign, two years each. Followed by a rental in Montreal for four years, a house for 47 years and our current condo for getting on to 6 years. All the rest were half year (once) or one year sabbatical rentals.
I’m 88 (as of yesterday).
House 1 birth to college freshman year
Dorm room (5 years of college - same room)
House 2 (Mom moved my Freshman year)
Summer house 1 during college
Summer house 2 during college
Apartment 1 after graduation
Current house
Brian (58)
Somewhat fewer than I thought: 16 residences and I’m 63 years old. That’s an average of just under 4 years per location, but my last two were 14 years and going on 21 in my current house, so most of my moving around was when I was growing up. I averaged 2 years per location in my first 28 years.
Mid 60s here.
2 with parents
3 at college
5 after college, before I met Mrs T
2 subsequently
= 12.
j
The first three I don’t remember: house from 0-4 months, grandparents apartment 4-6 months, apartment 6-13 months.
Then the house I grew up in. Four different dorms in college, if they count (permanent address still my childhood home). One year in an apartment after graduation, then back to my mom’s house to save for grad school.
Grad school apartment, then one year in my girlfriend’s (now wife) dad’s basement, then another apartment, then our “starter home” where we lived for 19 years, and now finally our grown up house.
I think that’s 14 counting dorms, 10 if we don’t.
I’m 50, and I count 12.
5 with my parents growing up.
1 with a roommate, for eight months on a kibbutz.
6 with my wife, only the last of which we’ve owned.
I’m not counting the army. I don’t consider a place where I don’t have a key to the door as “my” home; they were just beds I slept in. Besides, there were way too many of them.
15 different places:
1 place in Wahiawa Hawaii
6 places in San Diego
8 places in the Santa Clara Valley
Okay, I came up with 36 as a mental exercise. This included barracks, parents’ homes, college dorm, rentals and ownership. I didn’t own my first house until I was 51. Bought our second home when I was 62. Now we rent again.
4, 6 or 7 depending how you count.
Permanent Residences:
1963 - 1993 the house I was raised in
1993 - 1996 a house closer to work
1997 - 2010 condo/townhouse in California
2010 - present a better place in Cali
Temporary residences:
college years 1981 - 1986 only 2 different places; a fraternity (4 years) and a rental house (1 year)
1997 I lived in an apartment for 6 months in California until I could buy a house
Early 60s here. 19 places in 6 countries including 3 different US states.
10 apartments and 9 houses.
I’d never counted up until now, and it’s an interesting question, so thanks @kambuckta for starting the thread!