Once upon a time, long long ago, in a land that may well never have existed outside of our national mythology, buying your own home was supposed to mean the fulfillment of the American dream. But today, the house you own - if you're lucky enough to own one at all - has come to symbolize both much more and much less than shelter and stability. The American dream is, after all, fueled more by desire than by fulfillment, and it's in our natures to burn for more: more rooms, more square footage, even more houses. And if we weren't leaning that way already, we'd still have the lucrative promises of the real estate bubble to whip us into a frenzy.The bubble has burst, but the frenzy is still going strong, and here to help us explore its meaning is Newsweek reporter Dan McGinn. In "House Lust: America's Obsession With Our Homes," McGinn takes us on a trek back and forth across the country to explore the first deadly sin of real estate, from tony suburbs in Massachusetts to construction sites in Las Vegas, to real estate agent conventions in New Orleans, and even to a sit-down with AOL's founder Steve Case, a recent investor in luxury time-shares.