# How long does a common residential house last?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-a-common-residential-house-last/404554>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 18, 2007, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-a-common-residential-house-last/404554 "2007-05-18T03:38:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-a-common-residential-house-last/404554/21 "2012-08-18T16:24:08Z")

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My house is 76 years old. So the answer is 75 years.

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**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-does-a-common-residential-house-last/404554/22 "2012-08-18T18:44:18Z")

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> [@rainforesthiker](#):
>
> I don’t think anyone on this thread has really answered the question posed. Sure timber frame houses or houses made more than 50 years ago with old growth wood will last a long long time. From what I have read, new stick framed houses built with new growth wood (30 year old trees or so) and built only to code will probably last around 40 - 100 years or so. The new growth wood studs used today are not as straight or strong (or dense), have more knots and moisture, and will twist, warp and crack more readily. Plus there is invariably moisture getting behind that housewrap. Time will tell. I don’t think we should have any illusions that 200 or 300 years from now all of these new suburban stick frame homes will still be standing as built.

In the US, he urban pundits of EVERY generation have pined that houses built before their generation will last forever, while those built during their time will last only 25 to 50 years. They said this during the post-War suburban boom of the 1950s and 1960s, during the go-go bungalow belt years of the 1920s, and during the very early streetcar suburb decades of the 1890s and 1900s. For the “older is better” crowd, I like to show them houses from the 1910s that were “lovingly hand crafted by immigrant carpenters who once built the great cathedrals of Europe” with sagging roofs and walls, and “ticky tacky” Capes from the early 1950s that are as good as new.

In areas where termites are an issue, what you described could be an issue, because local old-growth wood was more resistant to insect infestation. However, in a place like Florida, building houses of native bald cypress timber is no longer viable. It’s a very slow-growing tree, and its use in residential construction today would essentially condemn the genera to extinction. When I lived in Orlando, my house was made of brickfaced concrete block.

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