New homes may be energy efficient, but often the materials are not as solid as they used to be (doors, windows, cabinets, etc). Plus there are many expenses like window treatments, and sometimes landscaping, etc.

If you could find something close in an older home, but then remodel you can get what you want. Of course remodels are not fun either and you cannot always find contractors since they are so busy these days.

I kind of liked having 8 ft ceilings in my old home, it seemed cozy, plus when I remodeled my kitchen the cabinets could go to the ceiling and were not too tall.

It was no contest for us. We bought an older home, 50 yrs old next year. Mature landscaping, very established neighborhood, excellent established schools, no HOA, close in. Everyone i've talked to with a new home has had a long list of things that were not done properly. HOA's around here won't allow you to even fence your yard.

It may depend on your price range. Buying an old
house is "buying used" -- you can get much more old house than new
house for the same money. In my price range the workmanship on new houses was
clearly not as sound. We also rented a 12 year old house for a year and it had 15 year windows that were already failing in spots and a pipe in the crawl space that had the wrong incline. We didn't check expensive houses to see if it's any
better, but one would hope so. Get an inspection even for a new build and hold the builder accountable right away. Also, if you get a new build, don't max your budget, set aside money for expenses you might have to take care of. Our realtor was negotiating for somebody that bought a new construction that was missing a lot of generally attached fixtures such as toilet paper holders, towel bars and light fixtures (he did push the builder into providing them). I gather from some other threads that this is not unusual.

Having had discussions on old vs. new houses with the tradespeople that worked on my 'old' house, I did find out some interesting things. Old houses were, in their words, "overbuilt" and are much more flexible to major changes. In an old house, if you want to take a wall out, build an addition, or restructure the interior walls, you can usually do it with relative ease compared to new houses, which are usually engineered to support the original design with minimum of materials. They claimed that making wall changes to a new house safely always involves a structural engineer and more extensive calculations. Another thing to be careful about is not to get a new build with vinyl or wood flooring assuming you can put in natural stone afterward. The floor is unlikely to be able to support it and can collapse under the weight. The tiles for our Florida room weighted one ton and needed to be transported to our house in two batches. Of course, if you buy a new house you are unlikely to want to significantly renovate or update it for quite some time, so you may or may not need to consider these kinds of things.

And of course, older houses are more likely to be single story, have more character, more green space, more developed landscaping, more privacy, and more developed neighborhood. But if you simply feel happier in a home with modern architecture, don't discount that! Non-tangible things often count for a lot.

This was a rather long post, but I hope it was useful.

You're leaving out location, the biggest factor. You can't lump all older homes into one category and all newer ones into another, either. An older home isn't always built well. A new one isn't always shoddy. At the moment, you can get more house for your money with 'older' because building costs are high.

Higher property taxes are not usually a function of new v. old. They are based on land values and what's in the 'improvement' (the house), along with recent sales in the area.

We got many 'old home' benefits by buying a 1950's ranch with mature landscaping in an established neighborhood, then tearing down and building a new home -- to our specifications and in a city with strict building codes. Fifteen years in, we are only now seeing some maintenance -- water heater, appliances, painting. A new roof will be coming up before long. Our tax rate is high because the land and area are highly valued. Our taxes are lower than our neighbors because our home is smaller.

I think the OP is asking the generic questions that many first time home buyers are asking: should I buy a house where I am the first owner, or not? Is a new house always worth the cost? What should I consider when buying a house? Yes, a house built in 1950s will have different issues than a house built in 1850s, and one can always get a lemon, but I think the OP is asking something on a higher level. @St561 W, maybe you can clarify before I make more claims with no backing in your name? :)

The OP is referring to a specific situation.

For instance, I like the higher ceilings in new homes compared to 8ft or lower ceilings in old homes.

My first home, a very modest semi-detached, built in the 1880s, had 10 ft. ceilings on the main floor. For mortgage purposes, I recently inspected a 1979 condo townhouse with 8' ceilings.

I think it really depends on what things are important to you and if you like the look of the home, the yard size, neighborhood etc. Many new homes are not built as sturdy as newer homes and maintenance free homes all tend to look the same. What is it you are looking for in a home besides higher ceilings? Do you want a house with character that is a bit different from your neighbors? Do you care about yard size and landscaping? Are you open to renovating an older home that is well built if you get it at a decent price? Lots to consider.

I would say, don't be afraid of older homes in general but you do have to be aware of the possibility of deferred maintenance issues. As others have mentioned, shoddy or just less quality construction can be a question for new homes. Depending on how old is "old" (LOL because a house built in the 1980s doesn't feel old to me) you may find that things like windows, insulation, wiring need to be improved, however a new build can skimp on insulation and window quality too.

So I guess you have to evaluate each potential house on a case by case basis.

I have a strong preference for pre-1960 homes and particularly the 1920s and 1930s for a number of reasons, all having to do with my own feelings and not necessarily anything practical.

Older homes have a history, new homes do not.

Personally I would say the only 'real' advantage that a new home has is that you can get it built to something you like as opposed to having to settle 'for what is available' in an old home.

Sure there is less maintenance up front in a new home but that first 10 years will go buy pretty quick and there can be significant problems with new homes in some cases.

I lived in a new build once..to make it very-very short, all the neighbors in these homes, including us, sued the builder...:)

And since the whole city knew-we also couldn't make a sale profitable enough when it came time to sell. We did sell all right, but exactly for the price we bought it for. These homes were a talk of a town:)

(While others, across the street, were considered much higher quality, and their builder had a great reputation.

From the outside, it all looked nice though. You had to be a local, or ask locals, to know this kind of info)

I agree with other posters-it really depends.

Daughter and family recently moved from Los Angeles ( where their house sold in a week) to the suburbs of Ft Worth. They wanted mature trees and landscaping, and so looked at homes built 10 or more years ago. In Texas, shade trees are a real bonus. When we bought the 4 new houses across the country over the years, we felt that new developments offered a better price. We were not facing remodeling, and replacing all the flooring, window treatments, etc. with an older home. On a tight budget, a new house worked better for us, and usually meant great schools too.

By the same token, a young couple on a tight budget wanting to buy in a particular area can get a great deal on an older home, and remodel as time and money permits.

Our first house, purchased in 1969, was built in 1938. We had been married for 3 years and did not yet have children. It was a 3 BR, 1 1/2 bath house with a finished basement (finished to the standards of 1938, i.e. dark and cold but there was a wood burning fireplace). Yes, things DID go wrong - a 2 yr old AC went out and since it was the old style water tower kind, we also had to replace the furnace at the same time. As we'd just had our 2nd child, this was pretty much a financial catastrophe for us. We divorced 2 yrs later and I got the house.

When I remarried, we added on a family room where a concrete deck above the basement garage had been, and a screened in porch across the back of the house - also built a brick terrace. We loved it but we did need another bath - children were now older. We could have built off the MBR over the new addition but interest rates were 16-17% at the time so refinancing an 5 1/2% mortgage was not an option! My husband ended up taking a job across the country in CA and we moved.

I have no regrets on buying that house. It had charm and was in a great neighborhood and school district.

Thirty-two years ago, we left CA and moved to KY. This time we bought a house built in 1948. We've remodeled twice and I finally put in a new kitchen. I would not trade this house (or the one in MO) for almost any new house on earth. The construction is better, the neighborhood has ambiance and "soul". Unless one is doing a multimillion dollar reproduction house, that's pretty hard to get in a new build.

We are on our 5th house, three were brand new, one was old, and our current house was three years old. There are trade offs in every decision.

Brand new houses have no maintenance, but they do involve expenses to put in a water softener, window coverings, landscaping. A brand new house can have some mistakes. Our second house didn't have duct work to one of the bedrooms. They forgot! The nice thing was, with a brand new build, it came with a warranty and all that little stuff was fixed for the first year. While I disagree that all new builds are shoddily built, that one was, but it was priced as such, and what we could afford at the time.

With the old house, we had had problems with plumbing and electric, it had an old furnace that had oil heat when every other house had natural gas, and wasn't in the best neighborhood. It didn't have a lot of amenities, not even a dishwasher. It also came with costs to update decor as well as infrastructure, and even with the money we put into it, it was a beast to sell.

Older homes generally don't have the features we like. Both Mr. Hammer and I enjoy having a master bath. I don't want to go down the hall to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Master suites are more common in new builds than old. I also like first floor laundry and a mud room, and Mr. Hammer insists on not only an attached garage, but a three car attached garage, other things that are unlikely in old builds around here.

I want to add that we are in a time in our lives when we are very busy with family life with kids growing up. Someone said 10 years go by quickly and you need maintenance on a new build, but if you are putting braces on your kid and paying doctor bills for those 10 years, that grace period is a blessing!

I am the happiest with our current house, which was 3 years old when we bought it (family was relocating). They already did all the initial costs of putting in landscaping, window coverings, the water softener and upgraded the appliances. They even put in a raised garden bed and storm doors on both the front door and the door leading to the garage. We also have the newest thing around here, a covered patio. It is wonderful! Although frankly, I think we have more things we love in our home because we paid for it. We are in a much different financial place than we were when we bought that shoddy new build with a blacktop driveway and no heat to the baby's room. What amenities I have now, I paid for them!

What, really, are you after? There are many statistical marks that can- and will- lead you to buying a new home vs older. I've owned them both- to the extreme, as in 80 year old charm vs. brand new- and I'll give you my take:

New homes frankly just don't carry the maintenance costs of older. That's a period. Energy efficiency is a big one, but it extends to infrastructure (pipes etc, on property, that are your responsibility to fix). There are numerous sites on the Internet that can help you decide, but I have to tell you:

Brand new vs older charm? The former is so much more protective of my budget.