Forget ED. Latest Male Ailment Is Home Buyers Remorse

Call it Male Home Ownership Dissatisfaction Syndrome (or, MHODS, for these pharmaceutically abbreviated times).

Or maybe just a bad epidemic of Buyer's Remorse. After seeming to embrace the many "joys" of home ownership -- mowing the lawn, retreating to the finished basement to watch football, unclogging blocked toilets -- guys, it seems, are rebelling and giving up the mortgage. Or so The New York Times tells us.

Take one Alan Berks, a playwright. He owned a 3-bedroom house in a Minneapolis suburb and spent a lot of time unhappily rearranging the living room furniture. He got fed up, moved with his wife to Honduras, and then resettled in a Minneapolis rental near shops and restaurants. His conclusion about home ownership? He doesn't see it as a "moral good."

He's not alone. The Times sees a "growing cohort" of guys who are "falling out of love with the holy institution of home ownership."

Given the sub-prime fiasco, foreclosures, and record unemployment, it's not too surprising that anyone - male or female - would rethink owning a home, especially if the incentive for buying is to have an investment rather than simply a place to live, as was the case with countless home buyers during the real estate bubble.