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Look, as my pal from The Canary Islands puts it, USA is made with wood, gets burned and moldy and wears out. Look at Europes older structures, masonry. They last for centuries upon centuries, there is no comparison between wood and masonry.
In earthquake country? Maybe on the east coast, masonry is fine, but here you need to reinforce it significantly or only use masonry as a facade (as opposed to structural). But even masonry can do badly if you don't maintain it or if you build it improperly.
As for wood, depends on what kind of wood, how it was built, and how it has been maintained. You could probably find 100+ year old redwood houses in SF, for example, where you could reuse the redwood when you remodel those houses, and the redwood might be good for quite a long time. Other materials, especially when poorly maintained, who knows?
BayArea
2011 Oct 24, 7:08am
I am currently living in the Oakland Hills (area that was taken out by the '91 firestorm) where my property and most properties within a 2 mile radius of me have been built since then. As a result, most homes in the area are relatively new. However, I would enjoy being down the hill a bit into Rockridge where there is more life, restaurants, bars, walking distance to BART, etc... One big deterrent for me has been the age of homes in that region. Most are 50-70yrs old. Although any home can be remodeled if the owner is willing to invest into it, age can certainly be a turn-off for many people.
It's difficult to think that a buyer would ever say, "nope, this home is just too new for me," but the opposite can be very true and should be considered when purchasing a home.
In the case of Rockridge, nearly the entire area has real estate that's accumulated some age, so people have no choice and it remains desirable regardless.
It's difficult to think that a buyer would ever say, "nope, this home is just too new for me," but the opposite can be very true and should be considered when purchasing a home.
I think that all the time. I live in a "cheap" 1950s tract home, 1022sf, 3/1, built for the post-war refinery workers. This thing is a little tank, solid construction, perfectly situated, rarely spend more than $50 a month on energy bills.
Everything we look at newer than the 1960s was crap, unless it's a really expensive custom home.
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We have tons of old houses built in 40~60's in the east.
Some of them are quite nice and charming, many others are plain simple old POS that's full of blue tubs and pink toilets. I do appreciate old charm and don't really mind living in it though, one thing bugs me, since not all people are like me.
When I try to sell my house built in 50's in 20~30 years later from now, will they love to buy a house that is way older than their granny?