Purchasing residential real estate is a mixed bag under the best of circumstances, and buying an older home comes with its own unique set of challenges.
Older homes ranging from 100 to 50 years of age – as opposed to "newer" homes constructed since the 1980s – were built to last. They feature superior materials and possess craftsmanship and charm not available in new construction.
Historically, older housing stock has survived the flu pandemic from 1918 to 1920, the Great Depression of the 1930s, the GI Bill of Rights of the 1940s, the Great Society of the 1960s, the oil embargo of the 1970s and the condo boom of the 1980s.
Buyers of Older Homes
Why are older homes available and who is buying them? High mortgage rates and rising home prices negatively affect affordability, exacerbated by the fact that inventory of starter homes and affordable housing doesn't meet demand.
Gen Z buyers, born between 1999 and 2011, account for only 3% of buyers, according to a recent report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, now make up the largest group of homebuyers (38%). Put together, these younger buyers often look for affordability in their starter homes.
While some of these buyers may be childless couples with two incomes, they often carry student debt and are forced to confront high interest rates. In their desire to get on the homeownership ladder, they may be willing to forgo modern finishes and up-to-date appliances for affordable move-in properties.
The Upsides of Older Homes
What are these young homebuyers actually getting for their relatively affordable prices? Mature homes often come with established neighborhoods, amenities such as mature landscaping and tree-shaded streets and sidewalks, and are close to shopping, schools and recreational facilities.
If the house itself has been carefully maintained and systems updated to current standards, all the better for the new owners. But what if the house has been badly updated with questionable wiring and plumbing and faded, worn interiors or not maintained or updated at all?
A savvy real estate agent and a buyer with imagination can see beyond dated decor and cracked, water-stained ceilings to negotiate aggressively in light of necessary renovations and updating. Real estate opportunities often come in disguise.
Unique Features in Older Homes Worth Keeping
Two of the most overused words to describe older homes that I, as a real estate broker, encounter are "charm" and "character." I prefer to emphasize craftsmanship and materials not found in new construction.
Slate roofs, leaded glass windows, unique wrought iron handrails, front door hardware,and exterior light fixtures are features I point out to buyers before we enter a house. A gracious foyer, vestibule or "transition space" between outside and inside, rarely found in new construction, is very welcoming to a well-proportioned living room, often featuring a fireplace with a custom mantel, wainscoting and, sometimes, built-in bookshelves.
I emphasize to homebuyers that if these details are original, they are indeed unique, as mass-produced stock woodwork did not exist when the house was constructed. Each banister, railing and newel post was unique to each house. Recreating these elements today would be prohibitively expensive, if possible at all, as craftsmanship is a dying art.
Dining rooms may feature beautifully crafted sideboards or cabinets, butler’s pantries and cabinetry unique to that space. Kitchens may be a patchwork of old and new, but dining nooks with windows and built-in banquettes and, if lucky, a separate pantry, are gems long gone from post-midcentury homes.
Other features worth keeping are laundry chutes, telephone nooks, window seats, cedar closets and, most prized of all, solid hardwood floors, often in mint condition if preserved under wall-to-wall carpeting, as is often the case.
Features Absent in Older Homes
Despite the abundance of vintage hardware, light fixtures and opportunities for gracious living, certain features may or may not be present in homes built before the 1980s. If they are, they may appear as awkward renovations, standing out as late additions. Walk-in closets, like sliders to decks and patios, were not common in homes until after World War II.
“During World War II, a shortage of construction materials led to smaller, more efficient housing designs influenced by the federal government’s plans for war industry-related housing projects,” according to Utah's Historic Architecture Guide. Hence, older properties may not include modern features like sliding glass doors common in newer homes.
Over the next few decades, lifestyle changes produced the family room, dedicated entirely to leisure, followed by the mudroom and the Great Room. Buyers of older homes can forget about home offices and home gyms, unless they allocate some existing space to these contemporary conveniences.
First-floor half-baths, called powder rooms or guest baths, appeared occasionally in larger, custom-built homes, but were not commonplace until the 1960s. Elle Decor researched the evolution of the half bathroom to the “powder room,” revealing that first-floor bathrooms are one of the first renovations that buyers of older homes will add.
Undesirable Features of Older Homes
While some desirable features may be absent, buyers of vintage homes may be dismayed to find "modernizations" or "upgrades" from more recent homeowners that they may view as undesirable.
Dropped acoustical ceilings with fluorescent lighting were seen as a way to disguise cracked or peeling ceilings and add a "modern" touch, as were vinyl sheet good flooring in kitchens and bathrooms. Wall-to-wall carpeting, a sign of luxury to which almost every 1960s and 1970s homeowner aspired, is often found in older homes, along with decorative wall treatments including gold veined mirror tile, veneer brick, knotty pine paneling or wallpaper of all hues and patterns. New homeowners may want to consider removing parts of these wall coverings to determine if anything of value lies beneath.
Transforming an existing house into a home is a labor of love. When up to one's elbows in shredded wallpaper, stripping paint with chemicals and heat guns, and hauling out moldy or pet-stained wall-to-wall carpeting, padding and tack strips, used to hold carpet in place, it may be hard to recall why the house seemed so appealing.
However, the popularity of mature homes is ultimately reinforced by the charm, the location and the craftsmanship. Like any aging structure, improvements, both aesthetic and structural, that may have seemed like good ideas or even vital to maintaining the integrity and adding to energy efficiency may, in time, evolve to be less-than-ideal choices. Modern technology, which is ever-evolving, may well prove to provide newer materials, systems, and appliances, which, when added to older homes, provide a seamless and sensitive improvement.
An Older Home: A Nesting Place
Nesting is defined by dictionary.com as "the tendency to arrange one's immediate surroundings, [...] to create a place where one feels secure, comfortable, or in control.” Closely associated with birds who build nests to lay eggs, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. Older homes, previously nests to prior generations, can, through new owners' efforts, become modern and secure homes for future generations.
Read more at USNews.com
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