95% location, 5% house
I've lived in over 40 homes in my life, ranging from literal shacks to multimillion dollar homes, from deep in the mountains to the hearts of major cities, and everything in between. I'm pretty flexible when it comes to housing, but a bad location is a total bitch.
Thankfully, my preferred locations also tend to have my preferred type of housing, so that really works out for me.
Location:
-work commute is a pretty big deal for both DH and I, so we live where DH can bike/run to work and where I am driving against traffic, so no gridlock and we only need one car
-EVERYTHING is walkable, everything, it's hard for me to come up with something that isn't within walking distance from my house
-OMG the food here is amazing. It's extremely multiethnic, so the restaurants and grocers are incredibly varied. Other than fast food, there are no chain restaurants. I would die in the suburbs.
-we're only 500m from the water
Housing:
DH and I really can live in almost anything, we're minimalists who spent our entire 20s as broke students living in shitty apartments with roommates and sleeping on old futons.
We're really, really not picky.
That said, we have some distinct preferences
-apartments over detached or townhouse, in a high-rise on a high floor, with a nice view
-older buildings for better soundproofing, bigger balconies, and decent sized kitchens (what's up with the useless kitchens in modern "open concept" apartments??? Do people not cook??)
-indoor pool
-indoor heated parking (I'm in Canada, this is HUGE)
-gym & sauna
-somewhere to hose salt off of bikes in the winter
We are moving *today* into our new "dream home" apartment, which has everything on our wish list.
Nobody wanted it because it's a 1 bedroom, very dated, was utterly hideous (so much yellow), and the copper plumbing is so old that it can never have a washer or dishwasher installed. For us, it's perfect.
So yeah, even though the house itself only makes up 5% in terms of priorities, that 5% accounts for a lot of added happiness, but a bad location would make us utterly miserable, so that's why location gets 95%.