My story in today’s Contra Costa Times attempted to address the differences of men and women buying homes, according to a Countrywide customer survey.

While I wrote the story, I’m not altogether sure that there are many differences. As one of the people quoted in the story said, he tends to make home buying decisions. In my family, I am the one who first spotted my house (before it was constructed!) and told my husband to meet me at the sales office.

We ended up starting the buying process an hour later. We moved in February 1, 2004 when construction was finished and the deed placed in our names.

For our “Where We Live” feature, we chose Byron this week in eastern Contra Costa County (the photo above is by Kris Skinner.) I think Byron’s a community that most people drive through but know little about. I hope that our real estate feature makes more people across the East Bay a little more familiar with it.

In other news, Countrywide Financial released a survey where a quarter of the 219 surveyed homeowners said they wished they had saved more money and learned more about buying a home before buying. I bet almost 100 percent also wished they made $100,000 more a year, too. I know I do!