[TimJYoung]

I know that you're probably talking a lot older than one century, but as a minor counterpoint:

Our house (in Buffalo, NY area) turned 100 this year, and there are thousands of houses just like it in the Buffalo area. In fact, most of the housing that was built in the late 1800s and early 1900s is still standing:

https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2015/06/28/oldhomes...

I think our house could easily go another 100 years with the proper maintenance.

[JackFr]

> In fact, most of the housing that was built in the late 1800s and early 1900s is still standing.

I don't think that the linked article actually says that.

What it does say is that Buffalo has the oldest housing stock in the country with a median construction year of 1954. I would guess that to be mostly an artifact of the declining population of the area, which peaked between 1960 and 1970.

[TimJYoung]

Yeah, I kind of conflated my anecdote with the reference in support of my anecdote. I'll have to see if I can dig up more data on this.

As for population, you have to be careful with the statistics on this because, while the area did lose population since the 70s, there was also a lot of flight from the city to the suburbs over the same time period. So, it is often more instructive to look at the total population of western NY instead of just the city of Buffalo.

[kazen44]

the issue with old housing in the end is simply heat isolation. Old houses leak away alot of heat (especially if deep cracks are present in the brick and mortar, which is very expensive to fix). Which in term will mean you pay a significant amount of extra cash to keep the heat on. Renovation is possible ofcourse, but not always worth it?

[TimJYoung]

Many of the older homes here are wood (typically, balloon frame) with a sandstone foundation, so you can reduce the amount of heat loss by making sure that the sandstone mortar is in good shape, making sure that all windows and entrances are properly-sealed, and strategic use of insulation. I say "strategic" here because you have to be careful about making the house too tight, which can cause moisture to get trapped and result in very bad things like sill rot.

The key is that these old homes have very good "bones", so even a gut job can use the original structure intact. Combine that with the fact that Buffalo's real estate is relatively inexpensive still (it's starting to get up there, though), and extensive renovations aren't too bad on the wallet.