American homes are some of the biggest and best in the world. Many have a garage for one or two cars, a big modern kitchen, a living room, and a playroom for the children.
Upstairs there are two bathrooms and three or foor bedrooms. Young Johnny sleeps in one room. His sister, Sally, has another. Their parents sleep in the third bedroom. There is another room for visitors. Some families have two homes. They have one house or apartment in the city or suburbs. They live and work there.
But they have another home near the sea or in the mountains. They go to their second home on weekends and for vacations. Seventy percent of Americans buy the house they live in. They are lucky.
But thirty percent cannot buy a house or an apartment. Some of them rent their home from a landlord. Some landlords are good, but some are not. Windows break, or roofs get old, and the landlord does not always help.
The poorest people live in "public housing" apartments. These apartments are not like rich American homes. People do not like to live in public housing projects. They are afraid of thieves and drug sellers.
Americans who live in towns and cities move often. A family stays in one house for four or five years, and then they move again. Some people move because they have found a new job. Other people move because they want a bigger or a smaller home. In American suburbs, families come and go all the time.
Americans are always trying to make their homes better. They take a lot of time to buy furniture and make their homes beautiful. They buy books and magazines about houses and furniture. They work hard on their homes in the evenings and on weekends.
Americans like to think the United States is a young country, but really it has a long and interesting history. You can see some of its history in the styles of the houses. The lovely pueblo houses of Native American villages, the old pioneer log cabins, the plantation houses in the South, the beautiful colonial homes of the Northeast — they are all a part of American history. They are part of modem America too, because people copy the old styles in new houses. The history lives on.