[bumby]

Is there data showing that housing is the primary driver? I vaguely remember Sebastian Junger's book Tribe describing how people in low socio-economic community housing generally were happier than more well-off people in individual housing. I think his thesis was modern life, with suburban living, tends to disconnect us from community. From that perspective, it would seem like community is more of a primary driver than housing.

[FirmwareBurner]

There are also communities of well off people. In Europe. Not every well off person lives alone in a huge ranch 500km away from the nearest town.

[bumby]

I wasn't making a dichotomous claim about wealth. I was pointing out that housing may not be the primary driving of well-being. It's easier to illustrate with an example where lower income people report being happier, despite having less resources for good housing. Similarly, we could point out to poor people who are isolated and unhappy but that also misses the point.

Back to the original ask, I would be curious if there's data that shows housing as a primary driver of well-being, above those other elements.

[FirmwareBurner]

Well, self reported happiness is all relative. Someone who has two goats in a town of no goats will be very happy while someone owning a small apartment in a town of McMansions will feel very unhappy.

[bumby]

Yes, that's part of the problem with defining happiness in terms of external status and materialistic wealth. Hedonic adaptation tends to erode it rather quickly. With that said, happiness is a subjective measure so of course the measurement will be relative.

But that still diverts from the issue. It wasn't about relative wealth. It was about the claim that the primary driver of happiness is housing. Absent any additional evidence, it doesn't seem to be the case.