Interesting, but not sure that I am in agreement. The author seems to think it is a fallacy that home renovations can lead to increased function which can lead to increased happiness. Aren't we always encouraging folks on the home building forum to design a home that will be functional for their lives rather than forcing their lives to function around a bad design? Doesn't that imply that they will be happier and life will be better in a house that is well designed and functional?

Also, I'm not sure all of the information about the housing crisis is accurate.

That being said, most of the HGTV formula driven shows come across as just that and most people I know don't take the shows too seriously. I only watch House Hunters if they happen to be in my area. Occasionally I will fast forward to the end of Property Brothers to see the reveal, but could not stand to watch a full episode. Flip or Flop is short, so bearable, and is a good reminder of the current trends that will soon be dated :). I actually like Love it or List it Too since I'm a fan of Jillian's designs and the new houses they look through are generally pleasant to see. As for Fixer Upper, I will admit that I enjoy that show.

made me want to see the fantastically ugly house..:) I don't watch much of HGTV; most of it is really boring; and I don't have a cable so I've limited access to shows anyway. but I do find it soothing sometimes. Senselessly soothing.

I need to think some more before phrasing something coherent and easily-readable..

I don't know when and whether I'll get to that point lol.

So for now I just want to add something: HGTV seems very innocent. It's like talking about the weather to some degree(when the weather is agreeable and no hooricanes are involved..)That's something that you can put on in the medical office for example while people are waiting. Unlike news or talk shows won't make them anxious or mad or uncomfortable. Unlike a movie, you turn it off any moment or leave it without feeling of deep regret, when your name is called. It's something people can relate to, to some degree, but not to an alarming degree. It's a perfect opium for the waiting masses..a little time structuring help.

It's a pity that it came to be that, since I understand was actually much more educational and inspiring before..

And it's a pity that many people don't get interested enough to venture out more, cross that circle HGTV is drawing..ideally the moment you learn about something it should drive you to learn more, not less. That's how we were wired to be..if we don't keep it that way throughout our lives, that's a loss, in here and now, and for the future. Whether it's about houses or not..

And-as an a bit of off topic- it's a pity I can't share with you a very amusing episode in Hebrew about buying a property my friend sent to me recently..they make fun of so many things related to current housing situation(that's quite sad there actually since prices are skyrocketing), selling techniques, remodels..it's a very light hearted episode since more comical, less satyrical, yet they're spot on.

Is there a show here on TV that makes fun of HGTV?

if yes, we're still good:)

(shared experiences bring people closer. I don't know if always happier. That depends. On people and on experiences. But closer sometimes is good enough...

And sometimes it's too close so too painful. So you tear yourself apart

Obviously I'm not talking just about renovations..

There's no formulas for happiness. Maybe that's what the author was trying to say. Maybe he was irritated mostly about HGTV's rigid formulas..

Right, music and math share a lot in common. Yet math is math, and music is music, and there's something magical about both (to me at least since I suck in both lol) There's huge enjoyment in both knowing exactly and not knowing, since both should lead to enlightments and discoveries)

I love watching HGTV, does it make me want to buy a flip? NO WAY

Much hyperbole in the article.

I can only watch HGTV when I'm on vacation for a month in the summer: I'm too cheap to pay for a cable package that includes it.

I was fascinated at first, but after a week, one realizes that these are formulaic shows that are all interchangeable. The prices (and time frame) to redo a kitchen are absurd, and all of these place look exactly alike in the end.

But people DO watch them and they have become the "inspiration" for interior design that shelter magazines once were (yet another reason why they are dying). They encourage people to go with "trendy", rather than something that will still look good in 10-20 years (heck, even in 3!), they allow people to think these things can be done on the cheap, and when they now have their hopes up for a new kitchen/everything but the toilet, open concept, they will spend money they can ill afford to make it possible. Yes, it IS going to bring about a rise in personal debt that had gone down significantly since 2008.

I'm not surprised these shows have become so addictive to many. We long ago became a nation where "aspiration" became just plain envy, and serious resentment that we can't have what "everyone" has (are we really all still 13?).

What I AM addicted to are Escape to the Country, My Dream Derelict Home, Building a House for 100,000 Pounds and a few others. I watch them on YouTube. They are a fascinating contrast to HGTV. Hard working people building their own houses at night and on weekends, coming up with truly great design, and those looking to buy being polite and humble. I think my favorite is Building a House for 100,00 pounds. When they start to get in trouble, a marvelous architect and designer come in and help them get back on the right track and they end up with something truly unique and special.

I often think I must mostly resemble the sister/cousin that stayed behind in England when my ancestors came to this country. My taste and many other things is far more English than American.

I think they have put quite a revisionist spin on the history. There were shows about budget decorating, but there were also shows that featured very nice houses and classic decorating and how it is done in the real world.

As for porn, I am going to refer to a remark made by an art critic about Jeff Koons' s "Made in Heaven" show from the late 1980s: the critic said to the effect that not only was it terrible art, it wasn't even good porn, and if he wanted porn he would watch the real thing.

That's kind of how I feel about the current HGTV. And don't look up Jeff Koons's "Made in Heaven" unless you are not offended by cheesy porn.

HGTV is entertainment. The problem with it- just like porn- is that it is often not a realistic portrayal of what "flipping" or renovation entails. Su-ure... They come in, and do it all within 30-40 days? LOL!!! From experience, in my city, these shows also ignore many real problems that exist with the properties they renovate/flip/sell. BIG problems, like foundation problems. They also skip the part where they've been working with permit departments for months, on all "three" of the properties they "offer". Much left out. See- that isn't sexy, for TV, and too many people are out there, thinking they can do this, in the time frame that's offered to them.Laugh, again. Only with a whole bunch of pre-production does that happen.

So- just like porn, a consumer of this sort of entertainment needs to understand: There is a reason that the stars of these shows are all wonderfully photogenic. Need to understand the wonders of editing/producing. Really need to get that- just when you think it will all go well, there's a problem. Momentum, towards solution...Until the climactic scene. And for the average person, it's a bit messy. Takes a lot longer than you think.

I don't watch any of it, anymore. Give me "This Old House", any day.

Not only has it elevated the expectations of today's buyer, it's elevated the expectations of today's renter.

I was asked to paint the entire interior of the house I rented out for two years in the colors of the renters' choices and they asked that the carpet be replaced "because the previous occupants may have had cats or something".

When I pointed out that I had just closed on the house, and that there were brand new remnants of said carpeting in the house that showed it had been replaced for resale. They said "Oh...well it's just a really ugly color and we'd rather it be replaced". (It was khaki).

My SO is now an agent and does a combination of rentals and sales, and has reported regular comments that " The kitchen / bath / finishes are dated" in properties that are new construction within the last 7 -10 years. And these are people looking squarely in the middle of the market. These are just out of college and young professionals or graduate students. Plus they all try to negotiate rents down as if they are buying. I hate to sound like an old fuddy duddy, but when I was looking myself in that market segment of apartments for apartments I was thrilled to have a washer and dryer in the building. My first owned condo did not even have washer and dryer in the same building I lived in.

I agree with April that a lot of the popularity of these shows lies in their banality - they make for calming pre-sleep TV (there's a reason House Hunters airs at 10pm) in this age of screaming heads on the news, and extremely violent and crass (to me) shows even on network television.

As to creating unrealistic expectations - how is this different than the (literally) picture-perfect homes from home decorating mags or catalogs? A show like house hunters manufactures conflict, but in the end they all end up (or have already ended up) with a house that, like everyone else, they have made compromises on. And if the market dictates that a landlord paint to get a tenant at a given rate, that's what the market is - meanwhile, rents (and in most places home prices) have never been higher in aggregate across the nation, so I don't think landlords are exactly in the poor house nor are longer term homeowners suffering.

I also think it's ironic that the article paints this as an American issue when so many of these shows originated and are based out of Canada. The American self-shaming gets rather old from certain quarters.

Actually, in my case we set the rent at slightly under market because I wanted to get renters immediately, which I did. I did paint but we did it ourselves and I wanted to prevent them from doing it themselves, which they would have done, no matter what the lease said, and I would have had no recourse, really. I didn't profit anything from renting it out, because it wasn't an investment property. I just didn't have to pay two mortgages for the period of time I preferred not to.

As for the renters negotiating their rents, that's fine, but a lot of them are actually claiming to have options that they've found on their own as a sort of leverage or bargaining tool,--that they really don't have, unless they are dealing with something on Craigslist, because if it's on MLS the agent can find out the details for the property-- such as "but if I rent in this building, I can get X waived or I can get this much of a discount"--well if you can, fine rent there, and stop wasting the agent's time showing you units that are apparently inferior to what you can get somewhere else on your own. It's an odd market, because most buildings used to manage their own rentals and most people used to find their own apartments. Now renters look on Craigslist, they look at buildings with management and they look at stuff with agents and try to play them all off each other.

@palimpsest...this is what I have found (in my area) - the same thing your SO found. However, I also discovered that there are scammers on both Craigslist and Zillow Rentals that are advertising a property too good to be true. They scrape off the photos from another property and put it in zillow and craigslist with their own contact number. The price is way lower than anything on the market. Most renters have no idea that that zillow or craigslist listing is fake and designed to get the renter to send money to get keys. The renters uses these fake listings as "comps" - so if you inform the renter about the scam, they actually understand and stop using those types of fake listings to get you down in price. Works all the time. Besides, you have then informed the renter of a very real danger of just sending money out to someone online. I don't think that our area has a corner on the market for the scammers or for the naive renters. I see it in many markets.

The rest of your points are dead on IME.

I just don't understand the strong dislike for the station. We all know its staged television. I enjoy the simple stories about redoing or buying a house. I enjoy the nicer houses, it isn't fun to watch the bargain specials. I watch for enjoyment as I very much like house buying, decorating, remodeling and everything in between. I've been a buyer of my first not very nice personal house, I've bought very nice (to me) personal houses, rental houses, condos, triplexes, apartments, teardowns, built specs and done one flip. I like real estate. Watching HGTV has given me ideas, I remember watching an episode of Fixer Upper and seeing square recessed lights, I immediately searched online to tell my electrician to do it in my spec build.

BTW, I'm moving to a new area so I've gone to many open houses in four different cities and see some very nicely done home, every inch looking professionally designed, then again I've seen very tired, nothing done in thirty years homes. I much prefer the nothing done houses myself, I rarely like much of the deign the nicely done houses have, but of course I'm being asked to pay for it.

Also I know many people want only and pay more for new construction, its been like this long before HGTV came on TV.

Rents have gone up tremendously the area where we own a rental home in the last couple of years, but we have fantastic renters (pay 6 months in advance and rarely have issue they can't fix themselves). No Way are we going to raise their rent -- they are paying 2,400 monthly and market is closer to 3,000. Tenants are a dime a dozen, but a great tenant is hard to find. Selling comps are now in the 600,00 range, but we have far less than that in it with no mortgage and so ROI is still pretty decent. We did replace the countertops with granite and appliances a few years ago, but they insisted that we not recarpet because they have small children. We just agreed to not ding them on the deposit for the carpet since we were willing to install new for them when they moved in. Win-win -- they don't have to worry about the kids and carpet and we could defer that expense.

well I thought about how it's different from magazines...

not that different from bad magazines:)

different from good ones though.

good ones show you many different houses, approaches, styles, share thought processes of very different creative people

it's like -what the difference between fairy tales and whatever story my Mom told me each time when I didn't want to eat my dinner when I was two years old..:)

(I do remember the story tenderly, I just don't remember any details besides the main heroine's name and that she lived on an island in the middle of the Pacific))

the difference is, as with many things, in quality. here, of storytelling

not whether it's exactly the truth for every occasion and is attainable, what's being told and shown, but how inspired you are and what do you take with you from it

and to some extent of course you can take from HGTV too, and can be inspired by it

good magazine-it's just level up. hopefully two or three. so so magazine-right, not so different

and of course usually a magazine can't compete with a book.

even though books can also be bad, good, brilliant, or so so. also depends.

so I became much more discerning about books too, after several years of reading..

(btw I read several reviews on Gaines's book on Amazon and was very much impressed with how profound it probably is..)) now thinking-maybe I should read it too..))

I didn't read the article, but I do watch HGTV programs on occasion. I consider them the same way I see any other series - either I like the characters, or I don't. I get a kick out of the Property Brothers; they seem genuine, and not as obnoxious as other hosts. Obviously each episode follows the same formula, but it's like watching science fiction - you engage suspension of belief while watching.

I love HGTV shows, formulas and all. Like someone else said above, it is easy, soothing, and you aren't likely to find anything controversial or "yelling."

That said, it can give one expectations that do not apply to the real world. We lived in a cramped apartment for 9 months before buying our current house, during the coldest winter in WI in history. There wasn't much to do but watch tv. When we would go out and view homes, and our price range was about in the mid-range, the kids (and spouse, TBH) would make comments about not having hardwood floors or granite counters. Like these are reasons to reject a place.

What isn't touched on are the false numbers they post. They always invest $ for kitchen remodeling, bathrooms, floors, etc..., but then their house is worth much more than their investment. That doesn't seem to work out like that IRL.

When we first bought our house (2001), I thought the renovations should be aligned with HGTV numbers... What a reality check to learn otherwise. I agree that they should reveal the true costs, but then if they did that would ruin the fantasy ;-/

@handmethathammer: Exactly right. The money part is suspiciously low and you don't recoup 100% or more of the cost when making improvements unless the original purchase was way under market value. From what I see, they don't even seem to take into account labor costs either.

The worst offender was "Love it or List it". Invariably the house had structural damage, or faulty electrical, or a dead furnace, none of which was included in the budget. Yet the final value of the house was always great er than the cost of improvements.

New wiring does not add value to a house if the initial value did not account for faulty wiring.

They don't take into account labor costs because the show pays for the labor.

(our foreman worked for HGTV at some point..told me some stories..))

That is good to know!

It explains why the homeowners get so much for their money on the show. They say they have a budget of $80k and then proceed to describe work for $150k!

I can 100% guarantee that at least 1 of the very popular HGTV renovation shows does not pay 1 penny of the labor or material cost.

Its TV, does anyone expect reality? I for one don't get hung up on the numbers, not to mention the regional difference.

The flip side of HGTV's "unrealistic expectations" is that it's relatively easy to make a rental "appealing." A little staging goes a long way. I've actually started doing this for my rentals, which appeal to younger professionals. For example, I hang a large black/white picture of Paris, plop down a striped rug in the kitchen. I get a cute shower curtain, also to ensure the renter doesn't shower without a curtain.

On the other hand, having observed young potential renters, many couldn't care less about double pane windows, insulation, functional kitchen layout, and other practicalities.

And that's a sad thing.

I love quality workmanship, well thought out design, attention to aspect and things that last.

I understand young renters not caring about many "quality" details, it is a short term rental, probably in the best (for them) location. Not sad to me, just practical young renters who understand they can't have everything for their price.

Not when they have to pay for heating and cooling, and the windows are leaking. Or if there's no heating/cooling in the bathroom. Makes for some cold winter morning showers. But it's a marble bath :)

Or the vent outlet and return are right next to each other at the entry to the rooms. Oops...

So a renter cuts his or her losses, does not finance those upgrades/improvements, and moves on to a new rental.

Staging does not correct defects such as "double pane windows, insulation, functional kitchen layout, and other practicalities." Simply distracts the would be buyer or renter.

Huh?

I tried to offer some opinion on how shows like HGTV lead some younger renters and buyers to focus on cosmetics rather than practicalities, or form over function --- and that this can have pros and cons, for both renters/landlords or buyers/sellers.

Staging is not meant to replace repairs. Staging is a marketing tool just like professional photos and other forms of advertising.

Maintenance and repairs are necessary in all homes, not just those on the market. Far better to do the maintenance and repairs regularly than leave it to the end. The people that have big bucks to spend before listing have either not maintained the property regularly or left all the big repair items for last.

It is one of my pet peeves when the owners decide to skip the real repairs and just complete the cosmetic improvements. Sometimes its obvious to the buyer or tenant that the real work wasn't done (roof, HVAC, electrical, plumbing) - and sometimes it isn't obvious. I see this a lot with investors that make the choice to leave on the 20+ year old (nearly un-insurable) roof and put in a new kitchen and baths and flooring and paint. It's frustrating.

HGTV sometimes addresses those major repair items, but it always seems to come as a surprise bump in the road during the rehab process.

We are about a week away from putting our home on the market. It has taken us two years to completely renovate and fix things (new septic going in this week) so it is turn key and totally updated (except for one bathroom that has the pedestal sink and tub with sliding glass doors-realtor said it looks great). When I renovated my master bathroom and kitchen I did it with resale in mind. Neutral colors, subway back splash, stainless steel appliances, etc. I did this knowing that in our price range (low 500k) people expect all this. They do not expect to walk in and have to do one damn thing and I do agree that with the shows on HGTV many are disappointed when they do not see the homes looking like an after photo from a show they watch.

My son and DIL are buying a new home, their first home. It needs some TLC. My DIL wants granite and expensive flooring in a small home in a neighborhood that will never give her that money back in return. My son has to bring her down to earth. She loves HGTV. Coincidence? Everyone wants a home like the after pictures on HGTV.

I think it is great for people to dream, I think watching the shows help a person see what can be done if renovating or building a home and they aren't great at picking colors or putting floors, counters and tile together. It can give you ideas.

My favorite show is House Hunters International. I love seeing the different places they film in and what the houses look like. I also watch Beach Front Bargain, Fixer Upper and Love It or List It is pretty fun to watch as well. I'm done with Property Brothers and Flip or Flop. Booorrrrinnnggggg.

I agree that many sellers will not spend money on HVAC, roof, windows, etc. but this is also because a lot of buyers do not care and will not pay for it. They are blinded by the new appliances, the paint, the floors, pretty marble, etc. So unless buyers demand quality rather than bling, they will get crappy but pretty looking houses.

I have 2 mio dollar condos in my area that look totally amazing but have lousy sound insulation. However, I was only person who even inquired about construction quality. Same with an architect friend of mine who builds multi million dollar homes. Very few people are willing to spring for better quality materials that are not visible.

" Very few people are willing to spring for better quality materials that are not visible."-oh! that's why I hate going to the dentist(between other things). you suffer and pay, suffer and pay..:)

nosoccermom, have you been following what others have even said?

As with anything on the idiot box, take it with a grain of salt, for entertainment purposes only. Yes, maybe a way to get different ideas if you are building or renovating but that's about it. Ideas only, which you have to carefully balance and vet. And guess what - shiplap is not the answer for everything and installing the same gaudy tile throughout a house to 'tie it together' will result in a flop after the new owner tires of it after a couple of years - or months.

When my college-age daughter was home for the summer, we'd watch some of the HGTV shows together (and sometimes make fun of them.) She's 6'1" and now back at her second off-campus apartment. Shortly after moving in she tweeted this:

Denita, I wish it were you who my family and I are dealing with to sell our parent's investment house.

Thank you tete_a_tete.

Two of my kids have bought houses the past few years. It is amazing the impact these shows have on their notions. Thank goodness the one who cannot afford all these renovations has taken to the computer to learn how to do things himself. But the cost on tv is a joke compared to our reality.