Recently I saw a sign that read:
Home for Sale by owner
and below that is a phone number. Not much further down the road was a similar sign, but this one read:
House for Sale
It got me wondering if there was a difference between the two words, house and home, or if could they be used interchangeably. As with most of my questions nowadays, I “surfed” the internet for info. What I found intrigued me enough that I decided to share a bit with you.
A house is a building or structure whose design and function is suitable for human habitation, providing shelter and protection. To build a house, we need qualified contractors, civil and structural engineers, tradespeople, permits, etc. The finished product is a tangible asset, having fiscal value, and the transference of same generally involves a number of professionals, from Realtors to Bankers/Loan Officers, Insurers, possibly even Attorneys. There is no emotional attachment to a house. It is just a thing that can be bought, traded, sold, owned.
Not so a home. It is intangible. There is no such thing as a “Spec Home.”

A house can only become a home, when people move in, when they bring humanity, heart, feelings, emotions into the physical space. House connotes structure. Home: connection, peace, love, comfort, happiness, security, sanctuary, a sense of belonging.
In a nutshell, consider it the difference between a body and a soul. The body (house) is a physical, tangible thing, the soul (home) a spiritual, vivifying but transcendent thing. For a time the two can co-mingle, but house and home will start and end separately.
The ironic thing is that though a households monetary value, while a home holds none, of the two, the one with no monetary value is the priceless, most precious one. The truth of this is captured in countless enduring popular sayings. Here are just a few.
“Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.”
You never hear, “no place like house.”
“Home sweet home,” never “House sweet house” (unless it maybe just earned you a huge profit on sale, then maybe…).
“Home is where the heart is.” I’ve never heard, “House is where the heart is.”
We say, “We’d like to invite you to our home,” not “our house.”
We “feel at home,” not “at house.” And we tell a visitor or guest , “make yourself at home,” not “at house.”
And surely, when we get to an age a loved one or even ourselves, need extra care, we would hope to find them or ourselves in a “rest home,” not a “rest house.”
Home always elicited and radiates an emotional connection. So it comes as no surprise the word itself embodies something so much bigger than any brick and mortar structure. For example, we might say, “Arizona is my home,” or “the U.S., AMERICA, is my home.”
Oliver Wendell Homes observed: “Where we love is home. Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.
We’ll say “Homeward bound,” which has a warm, welcoming inviting pull, whereas connecting the word house to bound, as in “house bound,” flips the connotation to something claustrophobic, and negative.
One of the saddest and most tragic terms in our language is “homeless.” It says so much more, and goes so much deeper than if we said “houseless.” Humans can survive without a house. But one cannot survive long without a home.
Vernon Baker, an author, shared that: “Home is where the heart can laugh without shyness. Home is where the heart tears can dry at their own pace.
“I think that when you invite people to your home, you invite them to yourself.” Oprah Winfrey
“Home is about people. Not a place. If you got back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there anymore.” Robin Hobb, writer (I would add, all you have there then is a house, the husk not the soul).
Two years ago, pulled by nostalgia, I returned to my hometown of Sierra Madre, California, to visit my childhood “home.” I cannot tell you the melancholy and sadness I felt looking at it.
I stopped and talked to the present owners, shared I had lived there once, and that my father, a contractor, had built that house 73 years prior.
The present owner asked if I could recall what the house had cost to build back then. My dad had told me once that it was about $20,000 dollars.
The present owner said a similar house just down the street has just sold for a close to a million dollars. What would my memories be worth?
So yes, the terminology is important. A house is about wallet. A home is about heart.