A historic home is more than just a place to live; it’s a living history that you’re a part of. While the trials of owning a historic home can be daunting at times, the benefits are unrivaled. Financial benefits, architectural designs and quality of work that is unmatched by today’s standards are just a few of the reasons why you should love your historic home. Check out our top 10 reasons to love your historic home! You may learn to love your home in some new ways.
- Quality- Historic homes were built to last, and that’s why they’re still here today. They were built slowly and methodically usually by the people who planned to live there for generations. The house was hand built and not an assembly line product.
- Architecture- Cookie cutter homes that use modern building styles have changed the architecture of our structures. Historic homes have an architectural appeal that is unmatched by todays building design standards. There are no facades in old homes. The architecture is real, real, real.
- Materials- They don’t grow old growth lumber any more. Many historic homes have immaculate timbers that just can’t be purchased today no matter how much money you spend. Your home likely has such good bones that it would be prohibitively expensive to build homes of that quality today. All copper plumbing, solid old growth lumber, real plaster walls. It’s all there and very high quality stuff.
- Prices- Unrenovated historic homes are often priced much lower than a newly built home. If you’re willing to invest a little elbow grease and a few bucks for maintenance or repairs, you can easily transform a rundown historic home into a valuable work of art.
- Incentives- There are numerous financial incentives that are available in your area for purchasing and renovating historic homes. Tax breaks, loans and grants are all available either through federal, state or local channels, allowing you to get a great deal on your historic home. For more info on funding sources my post see How To: Get Historic Tax Credits
- Value- It’s simple. Properties located within locally designated historic districts are worth more, appreciate faster, and retain more of their value. In this crazy market a home inside a historic district provides much more price stability.
- ROI- Your return on investment or ROI is an important part of renovating, remodeling or adding any home improvements. Historic homes have a higher return on investment when you remodel, thereby increasing your home’s value and allowing you to get the most bang for your remodeling buck.
- Curb Appeal- There’s a reason commercials and magazine ads with a house in the background show the white picket fence and an old style house like a Bungalow or Colonial Revival. Americans see those kinds of homes as desirable and advertisers know it even if the public doesn’t consciously realize it.
- Eco-friendly- You can’t argue with the old adage that the greenest home is one that is already built. Buying an old home rather than building new keeps carbon out of the air and waste out of the landfill. Our motto is, “Please Recycle, Buy An Old Home.”
- History- Your home tells a story. Generations of families have lived in your home throughout a large portion of our country’s history when times were very different. Go to your local library or history center and dig through the archives and you can find so many interesting facts about the unique story that your home has to tell.
I hope you’ve found some new reasons to love your old home, or that maybe you appreciate it just a bit more. Whatever the case, enjoy the long story of your historic home that you are now a part of!
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
I love old houses, working with my hands, and teaching others the excitment of doing it yourself! Everything is teachable if you only give it the chance.
Have a 1919 Craftsman. Love it, takes a little upkeep but what house doesn’t
So awesome to hear that, Ray! We love hearing what homes our readers have. 🙂 – Alyssa at The Craftsman Blog
My mother’s lathe and plaster ceiling collapsed in a small bedroom upstairs after 5 days of rain and flooding. The walls were wet with humidity and there were no cracks, sagging, or signs of collapse prior. The insurance company covers natural disasters, but won’t cover this claiming it collapsed due to the house being old. It’s under 75 years old. What are the chances tjat the humidity caused the collapse, should it have shown signs prior of it were simply due to age of the ceiling, and how long should a lathe and plaster ceiling hold up without this issue?
Always loved old houses for the reasons above. I haven’t found any in my area that are in my price range. I did find a beautiful house in Pennsylvania, needs lots of work. It was rewired to become apartments , but I want to restore it to make it the way it was originally. Also it isn’t in the best neighborhood. It is the right price and beautiful. What would your opinion be
Lisa, there are so many variables when buying real estate. Generally a historic house will hold its value better than a new house, but remember the 3 rules of real estate…Location, Location, Location.