You are right in the short term. But how much will today's new McMansion be worth in 50 or 100 years? Is it likely to even last 100 years or will it need to be torn down?
It always amazes me on home improvement shows to see them having to replace windows and doors after 20 years while my windows are 150 years old and going strong. Similarly, houses built only a couple of decades ago often have more rot than my old timbers -- even though my house undoubtedly went through many periods of neglect. They just don't make wood or houses like they used to. But maybe I'm just a biased old house snob...
You make your slot very carefully vertical. Anywhere you see a switch or an outlet, you assume there is a wire running vertically floor to ceiling; But you won't have a wire even a short distance away from that vertical channel. The rest of the wall is safe.
Obviously there is a horizontal channel too. That will be consistently low or high. I don't know how they chose, I didn't get that detailed and there was a language barrier.
Wait a minute, you're telling me they use _logic_...? Wouldn't that take all the fun and excitement out of remodeling???
"Hey be careful - you don't know what's inside that wall." "Listen, I know what I'm doing, I've done it a thousand times before, there's no WAY a wire could be.....ZAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!: "Woah. That was close..." "...and exciting!"
See what I mean? Without the excitement and danger, you might as well get a regular job or knit or something. ;)
So....it's only your old house that gets better and more valuable? Hmmm. That seems a might convenient - for you!
One of the common pitfalls of personal observation is that people make automatic and often erroneous assumptions. There are countless old houses that have been torn down or remodeled to the point where they are not an old house anymore. The ones that are still around are the ones that people valued more, for one reason or another, or had no lapse in maintenance and didn't deteriorate.
Please don't get me wrong. I'm a retro-grouch in many things. I definitely do believe that the old ways were in many instances just as good if not better. One of my pet peeves is that there are no incentives to induce people to value the old things more. Most people will run up against the cost/benefit thing when dealing with their house, or buying a new (to them) one, and will have to let something go. When the something turns out to be old windows, or any other old building or part of one, well, we lose that. We are in essence letting market value erase our history.
That's what happened with the 1693 house I mentioned, and also with another 18th century house just a few blocks away. Scumbag lawyer convinced a bankruptcy judge that he was going to keep the house, and as soon as the closing ink is dry, he knocks the house down. The only thing they could charge him with was demolition without a permit, and he got a slap on the wrist fine. Make's me want to puke.
In my area the older houses are sold as "tear-downs" and sell for a bit less. The real cost is in the land. A $300K house on a $1.7 million lot costs $2 million. A $50K house on a $1.7 million lot costs $1.75 million.
A LOT of those nighbourhoods are seeing another demographic shift, as the Yuppies and new rich start heading back into the city center, buying up and restoring the former homes of the "old money".
Lots of cities are implementing "heritage districts" and rules that give a lot more than a slap of the rist to those destroying buildings in those heritage districts.
The big surprise?? Home values in those heritage districts, where you are severely limited in what you can change on the visible exterior of the buildings, almost invariably goes UP.
Well, hell. You've hit on the magic formula. Just buy an old house and you'll never lose money on it, no matter what you do. You should fire this information off to The Motley Fool as a foolproof investment plan.
You have a point, but it is not the only one out there. Don't belabor it.
Lots of cities are implementing "heritage districts" and rules that give a lot more than a slap of the rist to those destroying buildings in those heritage districts.
The big surprise?? Home values in those heritage districts, where you are severely limited in what you can change on the visible exterior of the buildings, almost invariably goes UP.
An increase in property value in a historic district is often offset by how much you're forced to spend to keep up with the district's demands. This phenomenon extends to operating expenses exacerbated by the inefficiency of the authentic yet drafty windows.
Absolutely. But in my case, the main part of the house (150 years old) has a basement (with brick columns - pre-Lolly days). The kitchen "wing" which is 200+ years old is built over a crawl space and the adjoining garage which is part of the same "wing" but obviously was "retrofitted" in is just an (old) concrete slab with no crawl space below.
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