There is no definitive test to determine if someone has HOUSE LUST - like many afflictions, this one is diagnosed by its symptoms. Answering Yes to one or two items below is no cause for alarm. But if you find yourself nodding affirmatively to most of them, you may have a problem - and you may be someone who would especially enjoy reading HOUSE LUST.

–Have you ever attended an Open House of a home you have no intention of buying, just to be nosy?

–Do you read the Sunday real estate listings at least once a month?

–Are Zillow, Trulia, Propertyshark, Curbed or Realtor.com among your web browser “favorites”?

–Can you name the host of “This Old House” or “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”?

–Do you have both a Home Depot and a Lowes credit card?

–While on vacation, do you stare in storefront windows at real estate listings?

–Do you know what the house on either side of yours last sold for?

–Can you draw, in five minutes or less, the ideal floor plan for your dream house?

–When you do a home improvement (or hire someone to do it), do you imagine friends’ reactions upon seeing it? Do you calculate how it will add to your house value?

–Is there a house in your town that you’d absolutely buy if it came on the market?

–Have you ever thought that it’d be fun and lucrative to be a real estate agent?

–Do you subscribe to any “shelter” magazines?

–Would you rather shop for bathroom tile than shoes?