Buying a house

I would like to ask what are the reasons which motivate someone to buy a house. Of course, I am considering someone who has the possibility to do it, either using some saved money or agreeing a mortgage.

Curtains

I would like to ask whether the use or not of curtains influences the social behaviors of the people living in that region. In the mediterranean countries, the windows of fancy furnished houses have double or triple protection from the sunlight: thin white curtains, thick darker curtains, and shutters or similar. In the continental Europe, in the northern part, it is difficult to find any shade of curtain, thin or thick, even in hotels. In Asia there I have seen ricepaper curtains, where you can see the shadow of the people behind them, but diffused.