Id go with the new house...old house may have problems, bad wiring,copper plumbing,bad insulation...just my opinion
yep. Big reason for this is the increase in material and skilled labor costs for higher quality construction. Oddly this is partly what's driving the current crop of old steel / brick structure renovations. it's way cheaper than building new.
I'd buy a cheap old house and spend a year rehabbing - mostly weekend projects. do the whole house stuff first (plumbing, wiring, ac, windows, roofing) and then finish out rooms/move in one by one.
Kelemvor
Lifer
- May 23, 2002
- 16,928
- 8
- 81
Lots more go into it than just the house age.
Who owned it before? How was the upkeep? What's been replaced recently and what's going to come up in another year or two (roof, furnace, windows, AC, etc). Yard sizes? Square footage and layout difference?
Strictly the age of the house doesn't make a whole lot of difference for me other than the differences in technology from way back when to today.
Who owned it before? How was the upkeep? What's been replaced recently and what's going to come up in another year or two (roof, furnace, windows, AC, etc). Yard sizes? Square footage and layout difference?
Strictly the age of the house doesn't make a whole lot of difference for me other than the differences in technology from way back when to today.
- Oct 28, 1999
- 62,484
- 8,345
- 126
:thumbsup:
If it's 50 years old it may have had a number of updates done to it to bring it up to modern amenities. Remodeled bathrooms & kitchens. New wiring, ect.
Hard to say which way to go without knowing specific details.
My 30 year old house took about $600 to rewire about 50% of the rooms. It had a recent kitchen and bathroom remodels when I bought it. What I got with it was a yard full mature oak and maple trees that will take decades to replicate in a cookie cutter development put in the last few years.
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/viedit/myyard2small.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/viedit/myyardsmall.jpg
My neighborhood has lots anywhere from 1 acre to 8 acres in size. Price wise they are about 30% less than new houses of similar sq/ft. But our homes have yards that are 4x to 20x the size of the new constructions. A mile down the road a lot...just a lot...of the same size as my yard is going for over $150,000. I paid less than $240k for my place.
Don't rule out a place because of it's age.
Triumph
Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 15,031
- 14
- 81
Yup. You'd be lucky to get a brick front around here. And real wood moldings, wood (instead of pergo) flooring, solid doors, plaster walls, hardware that doesn't feel like it's going to break in your hands, you're not going to get that with a new house. And no one builds with stick frame roofs anymore, so what could potentially be another room or large storage space is almost useless in most newer houses. About the only thing new houses have going for them is the wiring and windows. Old windows suck.
Around here (Nova), square footage IS the only measurement that matters. People will level a perfectly fine 2000 square foot rambler in a nice neighborhood, so they can put in a 3500 square foot mansion, built within an inch of the property line setback codes, with enough empty cathedral ceiling space to build another 3 bedrooms.
mugs
Lifer
- Apr 29, 2003
- 48,920
- 46
- 91
Why would you need to do all of that? I live in a house built in the 30s, and everything is fine. The wiring is dated, but it's functional. I'd rather have drywall, but I wouldn't rip all the plaster out just for the hell of it.
I do however much prefer the floor plans of newer homes. I believe older homes are smaller on average. The house I'm looking at buying is great. 1.4 acres, woods in the back, nice neighborhood with houses pretty far apart. Built in 1993. I'd take that over any of the older houses I've looked at.
Its the same here. We have been looking all summer and finally decided to get one of the newer homes in one of the new sub-divisions. Every older home we looked at needed work, or either the square footage was a lot less than the new homes. Honestly did not want to buy a "new" home and then have to do work on it before we move in.
Throckmorton
Lifer
- Aug 23, 2007
- 16,829
- 3
- 0
That's cool but designing a neighborhood like that is the exception. Also, that neighborhood doesn't have trees. The hills aren't appealing either. I want a house that's tucked into its environment, whether it's trees and trees and trees, or trees, houses, alleys, and gridded streets.
Squisher
Lifer
- Aug 17, 2000
- 21,204
- 66
- 91
Old houses without problems don't exist.
Old houses: asbestos, mercury, lead, creaking floors, no insulation in walls, bad wiring, galvanized pipes, tons of code violations, and this is assuming there are no leaks in the roof. I've been there.
New house: poor construction due to a builder cutting corners. Most can ferreted out through good inspections. I'm there now.
Yeah the lots are generally smaller, but not necessarily so.
If I had my druthers, I'd build a house.
alkemyst
No Lifer
- Feb 13, 2001
- 83,769
- 19
- 81
I don't get that...both old and new neighborhoods can be great and terrible.
Everything being equal the newest house will be the best.
I have a thread on rationalizing things just like this. What usually happens is to get the same neighborhood you either have to spend a ton in the newest communities or drop price and modern amenities and buy into an older community. No matter how good the older neighborhoods are there usually is a few dirtbags that either are all piled into one house and/or do not upkeep their homes.
I am in an older neighborhood. If money was no object I'd buy into a much newer and more exclusive one.
keeping the neighborhood issue and the price level about the same, and assuming that the pirce is at a mid level range. ie: 175-225k. My opinion is the old house. at this price range, most of the new homes are made in the cookie cutter new developments by the MI, Dominion, big home builders. Nothing againest them but i hate how the entire developments 1) look the same 2) are crammed in next to each other, about 5-10 feet of space in between them 3) have poor quality- toured some of those houses at the 5 year mark and there are always signs of something deteriotating or falling off. now an old home can very well have those same issues and takes as much if not more work in the screening process and potentially quite a bit more in fixxing up. To me those old houses have a ton more character and can be quite well built, if you find the right one. you may have to deal with refinishing hardwood floors (rest assured there's a good inch of hardwood there to refinish), laying new tile, updating electric, heater(air and water), cabinets, appliances, etc.. personally, i'd rather spend less on the inital purchase and get the older home that needs some updating. i might end up spending about the same but all the updates are personalized to what i like. there's also something about old hardwood.. real wood and not the quarter inch hardwood of these days that i like.
waggy
No Lifer
- Dec 14, 2000
- 68,143
- 10
- 81
the only way i would buy a new build is if i was having it built. seems to me all the new stuff is cookie cutter crap. They use sub-par material and cut every corner they can. The only advantage is sq/ft. even then they scoop out teh back yard and throw a exit on the basement to add more.
we looked at a few in the "nice" subdivision and i was not impressed with the quality. trouble is it seems like the builder is the only one building around here.
though we do have a new build of "starter" homes. they are very nice. i would have moved in that area.
but then again i don't like living in "town" (the city i live in had 300 people heh).
I have had old houses (one farm house was 100+ years old) and newer house (one i live in now was built in 85 i think). the older house was just nicer. it had a charm and feel to it new builds can't match. BUT it needed more work then we wanted to do (plus i knocked up the wife).
the new house is nice (we know the builder. we know he did a quality job) but lacks the charm the old house had. granted we had hard wood floors put in, woodl molding (not all over) etc. but i really did miss the old house.
though a usefull basement is nice heh
- Oct 28, 1999
- 62,484
- 8,345
- 126
There is no such thing as "all else being equal" in real estate. It's not like cars, or clothing, or electronics.
The lot you have a house on is the only lot that your house is on. The distance to work is "fixed". Your school districts and property taxes are different. And then the house itself has things in it that either can not be replicated, or replicated easily.
There are many more intangibles to go into the "worth" of a house than simply the sales price.
I've lived in two "cookie cutter" neighborhoods and I currently live in an older subdivision(devolped in mid 70's). There are definite advantages to both. In the new subdivisions I had lots of trails availble for running and biking. The streets and sidewalks were newly paved. There were a lot of young people living there since they were "hot spots" to move to and marketed towards younger families.
But once we moved in we quickly grew tired of having a backyard to play in, room to put in a garden, big shade trees, room for a basketball hoop, ect. Plus the new subdivisions are typically a much further commute to our employers which made for frustrating driving every day.
With the older house we have now we definitely miss the trails and parks that are dabbled around the developments. Plus we miss some of the more open/desireable floorplans. We also have a few things that we need to spend money on updating. But with where we bought we got privacy, room to expand, and a lot of extra money in our pockets that left room to remodel/expand how we want to.
Ideally I would take the "new" house we had and drop it on the lot we currently live on. The reality is that desirable lots are a finite resource and so are incomes. You can only afford to pay a certain sized mortgage a month. So you have to make a choice to go new and less yard, or old and bigger yard and factor in all of the other intangibles.
This isn't like comparing a Hyundai to a BMW.
I'm 26 years old...
thus far, every house/apartment I've ever lived in has had "character" (which is to say, old).
and there's certainly something to be said for character. I love the moldings in my apartment and the pull-out ironing board in the kitchen... but the next time I move, I want something new. it just seems like the upkeep required for new houses (and even apartments) is so much less.
thus far, every house/apartment I've ever lived in has had "character" (which is to say, old).
and there's certainly something to be said for character. I love the moldings in my apartment and the pull-out ironing board in the kitchen... but the next time I move, I want something new. it just seems like the upkeep required for new houses (and even apartments) is so much less.
herm0016
Diamond Member
- Feb 26, 2005
- 8,524
- 1,132
- 126
oh noos... copper plumbing? what were they thinking? WTF?
i like my new houses with copper plumbing. plastic supply lines ftl.
plastic is good for drains and the rest though. New is great if a good builder put some time into it. otherwise i would much rather have an old house with great craftsmanship. wood floors and windows ( i would put wood/aluminum windows in a new house too) no vinyl.
- Oct 28, 1999
- 62,484
- 8,345
- 126
Older homes usually have plaster too. I'll take that any day over drywall. The sound insulation between rooms is incredible. You can run into it with things and not make a dent that would otherwise put a hole in drywall. You can also stick a nail right into it and hang small objects without needing to find a stud or using an anchor.
But it is a hell of a lot harder to repair/smooth out if you need to cut into it.
ViviTheMage
Lifer
meltdown75
Lifer
- Nov 17, 2004
- 37,548
- 7
- 81
Depends... we built our place in 2003 and when we eventually sell it and move into a larger and nicer home in the future, we're going to make a killing.
Our subdivision is nice... 50 x 150 lots, treeline in the back... mostly custom built homes, etc... not all subdivisions are like that so I can (barely) deal with the stigmatized view of "cookie cutter" properties in this thread.
So to me it depends if you are planning on living there forever or not. Sounds to me like you're settling for something cozy and established, which is fine... but if you were to purchase the new home and put some money into customizing it (driveway, fence, landscaping, basement finish, etc etc etc it never ends) and sell it later on, you would be able to afford a NICER established property down the road.
Our subdivision is nice... 50 x 150 lots, treeline in the back... mostly custom built homes, etc... not all subdivisions are like that so I can (barely) deal with the stigmatized view of "cookie cutter" properties in this thread.
So to me it depends if you are planning on living there forever or not. Sounds to me like you're settling for something cozy and established, which is fine... but if you were to purchase the new home and put some money into customizing it (driveway, fence, landscaping, basement finish, etc etc etc it never ends) and sell it later on, you would be able to afford a NICER established property down the road.
While there are exceptions, newer neighbourhoods tend to be some of the most depressing places to live.
-cookie cutter houses
-artificial and sanitized feel
-severe lack of vegetation
-lack of commercial properties
-pedestrian unfriendly, far from public transport, too car-focused
I'll take an old place any day.
-cookie cutter houses
-artificial and sanitized feel
-severe lack of vegetation
-lack of commercial properties
-pedestrian unfriendly, far from public transport, too car-focused
I'll take an old place any day.
HeroOfPellinor
Lifer
- Dec 27, 2001
- 11,272
- 1
- 0
We were faced with the same question and went for the older house.
First of all, the construction is better. Second, we actually have a nice yard. And, third, older houses have more character and don't just blend in with the rest of the houses in the neighborhood. Fourthly, there are no CCNRs so we can do whatever we want to our house. Fifthly, older homes are usually in better locations closer to things in town while newer homes go up enmass on the outskirts.
First of all, the construction is better. Second, we actually have a nice yard. And, third, older houses have more character and don't just blend in with the rest of the houses in the neighborhood. Fourthly, there are no CCNRs so we can do whatever we want to our house. Fifthly, older homes are usually in better locations closer to things in town while newer homes go up enmass on the outskirts.
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