You may have done some research on real estate market statistics, neighbourhood information, mortgage rates, real estate salespeople, and brokerages in Ghana. However, there are some lesser-known fun facts about housing that you might not come across in your day-to-day web surfing. Below are a few of them:
In Scotland, homeowners paint their door red when they pay off their mortgage.
In the United States, if you see a winged eagle over the front door, it may mean that the homeowners have paid off their mortgage. The eagle symbolizes “freedom” from the mortgage payment.
A homeowner’s net worth is over 30 times greater than that of a renter.
Some doorknobs disinfect themselves, including lead, iron, silver, aluminium, and copper. The best material to use for a self-disinfecting doorknob? Brass.
A Japanese company has developed a residential earthquake-proofing system that raises a house off of its foundation as far as 3 centimetres using just air pressure. When an earthquake hits, compressors activate, forcing an immense amount of air under the home. The house will levitate there until the earthquake ends, then be placed gently back on the foundation.
In Ghana and some parts of Africa, people build houses with plastic bottles as an alternative to blocks. Due to its inherent nature, they do not erode and are fire and bulletproof in that, there is a bit of clay added when constructing the house. They are also earthquake resistant, energy efficient, well insulated, and 20 times stronger than blocks.
In the United States, there are 5 times as many vacant houses as they are homeless people.
The median age of first-time home buyers is 31. (Are you still within range? Check!)
The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is so tall that you can watch the sunset from the base of the building, take an elevator to the top and watch the sunset all over again.
Major cities like London, New York and Toronto have entire buildings and developments that exist solely for hiding event shafts, utilities, cell phone towers and railways simply to give off the illusion of occupation.
These are some fun facts about housing that we bet you had not heard of. If you know of any, share with us in the comment section.
