Houses & Housing Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Citations in the Category Houses & Housing

Homes, apartments, rentals, mortgages, real estate, realtors, land, renting, leases, renovation, etc. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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informal housing n. “So with a shortfall as big as that, is it any surprise that the prices have sky-rocketed and informal housing has grown beyond control?” he asks. Informal housing is estate agents’ parlance for slums, in which more than 60% of the city’s 18 million people live. [English India Houses & Housing Euphemism] [full cite] (Nov. 16, 2006)

jingle mail n. In the great Southern California bust of the early 1990s, real estate legend holds, many defaulting homeowners mailed their keys back to the lenders, in effect washing their hands of the whole matter, and promptly left town. Thus was born the term “jingle mail.” [English Houses & Housing Slang] [full cite] (May. 14, 2007)

jingle mail n. Kosciuszko said the mortgage insurance industry coined the term “jingle mail” because homeowners whose mortgages were worth far more than their homes literally mailed their house keys in to lenders. [English Houses & Housing Slang] [full cite] (May. 24, 2007)

jingle mail n. When the recession of the early 1990s hit, many owners of converted apartments in the Boston area, and especially those who had purchased them as investments, resorted to “jingle mail”—sending condo-unit keys to their banks or mortgage companies and walking away. [English Houses & Housing Slang] [full cite] (May. 24, 2007)

jingle mail n. I have heard about isolated cases of “jingle mail,” where homeowners have mailed in the keys because they can’t make the payments and no longer have any equity in their homes. That phrase was a prominent feature of the S&L bust and ensuing real-estate debacle in 1990-1991—and something we’ll be hearing lots more about in the future. [English Houses & Housing Slang] [full cite] (May. 24, 2007)

Katrina cottage n. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved more than $74 million for a state plan to build more than 400 alternative housing units, often known as Katrina cottages, for south Louisiana hurricane victims. [English Houses & Housing] [full cite] (Sep. 8, 2007)

Katrina cottage n. Earlier this year, the group’s board of directors decided to build what are commonly called “Katrina Cottages” to house the visiting artists. The small wooden homes were originally designed to be alternatives to the trailers provided by the federal government in the wake of massive Hurricane Katrina, which pounded the Gulf Coast in August 2005. The design has since become popular for vacation homes and as affordable housing in some parts of the country. [English Houses & Housing] [full cite] (Nov. 20, 2008)

knock down n. Don’t think you’ll actually live in the place, though. In the parlance of the area, it’s called a “knock down.” After purchase, you would be expected to knock it down and build a multi-million dollar McMansion on the site. [English Houses & Housing] [full cite] (Mar. 8, 2007)

lock-off n. The price for a one-bedroom “premium” villa is less than I expect: $16,900 per week, plus several hundred more in maintenance fees. Margarita recommends, however, the “two-bedroom lock-off”—a unit that can be divided into two—for $27,900.…He says he can set me up in a two-bedroom “lockout” (another term for lock-off) at Marriott in low season (spring and fall) for as little as $8,000. [English Houses & Housing Jargon] [full cite] (Jan. 9, 2007)

lock-out n. The price for a one-bedroom “premium” villa is less than I expect: $16,900 per week, plus several hundred more in maintenance fees. Margarita recommends, however, the “two-bedroom lock-off”—a unit that can be divided into two—for $27,900.…He says he can set me up in a two-bedroom “lockout” (another term for lock-off) at Marriott in low season (spring and fall) for as little as $8,000. [English Houses & Housing Jargon] [full cite] (Jan. 9, 2007)

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