I never heard a house had a life expectancy.
DD and SIL looking to refinance, appraiser makes a comment. House has a life expectancy of about 45 years left. ( house built about 1865)
I always thought barring water or insect damage, a house would last a very long time (assuming well built and maintained).
anyone ever hear of houses having life expectancy?
bobl Volo, non valeo
“But when you’re a kibbutzer and have no responsibility to decide the facts and apply the law, you can reach any conclusion you want because it doesn’t matter.” SHG
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I added new parts to mine so I expect my circa:1680 to last another 326 years...at least.
http://www.cliffordrenovations.com
http://www.ramdass.org
Depends.
If its a house built like the ones in europe, 800 to 1000 years.
A spec house in a cheap burb -- maybe a tenth of that. Maybe.
there a house up the road, built mid 80's typical three bedroom red brick house about 1800 sq ft. it been vacant for about six years. dont know why.
It is actually falling in on itself. I guess the roof leak or termites.its to the point of no repair
so, based on three replies, my thinking is: houses don't have a life expectancy per say. depends on if built properly and water insects kept out
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter WFR
"But when you're a kibbutzer and have no responsibility to decide the facts and apply the law, you can reach any conclusion you want because it doesn't matter." SHG
My house was built in the late 1880's and is still functional.
I think any house, including McMansions will last if people do proper maintenance.
My guess is they will last forever with periodic updates!
>>"...houses don't have a life expectancy per say. depends on if built properly ..."Precisely.I know of a house that is now in the hands of its local historical society. It was built in the early 1800's. The hist. group has documentation proving that it had no exterior paint for its first 75 years of existence. They have further documentation that the repairs at the 75-year mark were minimal. It still has its original clapboards.And I also know of houses that I've worked on, that were less than ten years old; and I spent a week replacing rotted wood. It really does depend on the design, the execution, the materials, a lot.
Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.
I think it depends on how you look at it.
If you look at it like it is the place you live and keep up it will last a LONG time.
But if you look at it like a commodity that is easily replaced, then yea, it won't last long.
Or you move some place else. It's in a realtors best interest have people move a lot.
I personally don't like most realtors. "There are three kinds of men: The one that learns by reading, the few who learn by observation and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."Will Rogers
Unoccupied houses seem to decompose more rapidly than occupied ones. Maybe it's just the lack of upkeep, maybe it's the lack of HVAC. Maybe it's ghosts.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
Depends on what it's built out of. I hear there is one in the Ukraine that is 15,000 yrs. old, made from mammoth bones. Those bones are hard to come by these days.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Lowes have them next to the treated lumber. No one should regard themselve as "God's gift to man." But rather a mere man whos gifts are from God.
Yea, but have you seen them? All warped like crazy.
Yeah, that's because they're so picked over.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
By the saber tooth tigers No one should regard themselve as "God's gift to man." But rather a mere man whos gifts are from God.
I would be inclined to say that you can keep a house indefinitely, if you protect it from water.
Foundation problems, rot, insect damage, etc. are all attributable to poor water-management. It's true that insects will attack dry wood, but wet wood is so more hospitable. If you take hydrostatic pressure away from foundation walls, the causes of failure are greatly reduced.
But that's just my opinion.
Jon Blakemore
RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
I'd imagine the life expectancy of a house is entirely dependent on the future tenants of said house.
But perhaps there's a practical limit as we go forward in terms of energy efficiency vs. increasing energy costs.
modern Bakersfield tract home: 15 years
View Image"...everone needs to sit on a rock, listen to the surf, and feel the ocean breeze in their face once in awhile."
cambriadays.com
All the things already mentioned, plus location. Don't build in a flood plain, swamp, crumbling shoreline, a city below sea level, or on top of a fault line. Even then regular maintenance helps a lot.
An adobe or concrete home with a metal roof in a relatively dry climate will last a very long time even without maintenance.
the responces in this thread make me nervous.an appraiser is putting a life expectency on a house based on age? doesn't sound like owners are going to get a fair shot.
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter WFR
"But when you're a kibbutzer and have no responsibility to decide the facts and apply the law, you can reach any conclusion you want because it doesn't matter." SHG
Well, I think its possible that an appraiser might be making such SWAGs based on his/her perception of the current condition of the place, combined with other knowledge......Does the appraiser know if the house has a contract for monthly and annual termite inspections -- or might it already have some damage. (That is only one example of knowledge that an appraiser might have, and which might affect the perception of durability.
Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.
Oh, yeah.
When an appraser and/or other judge of the property does his "due diligence," he only judges physical issues. The two you placed as "assumptions" (assuming well built and maintained), only one can be measured and qualified Today - when the value is being ascertained the "well built."
Therefore, some form of depreciation has to be incorporated to the measurement to cover the variable. Look closely at the page that describes your property tax calculations (it may only be able to be seen on the copy at the city/township/county hall), there will be a value for the depreciation basis. In your case, you already got about 145 of the 190 the house was/is good for. 145 is 76.3% of 190, meaning only 23.7% remains. Your depreciation value equates to a lower property tax than the Joe across the street from you whom built a similar valued house last year. Even though his may have a 100 year expentency. So his interpretation of the "well-built" factors in its longevity and "how well it CAN be maintained."
You be lucky. That additional 45 says nice things. Consider what could happen to accerelate that. Changes in energy sources/uses, climate that surprises you, tax policy, your back.
I would say the appraiser made this up. Neglected or poorly constructed homes will fail prematurely, but a continuously occupied and reasonably maintained home will last indefinitely. Vinyl siding alone has a half-life of 500 years or so
There probably is something to it. You can probably estimate, with modest accuracy, the amount of time that will pass before the "typical" structure requires major repairs (replacing foundation, fixing rotted sills, etc). Of course it varies a lot based quality of construction, weather conditions, and maintenance, but there are local norms, and what a mortgage company wants to know is whether they're at risk of getting under water due to deterioration of the structure, and knowing "expected life" within even a factor of two is probably sufficient for that purpose.(Too bad they didn't estimate with any sort of accuracy the possibility of falling prices.)
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
There was just such an article a while back in one of the news magazines (I forget which) but according to that article the average hpuse in America is sometrhing like 54 years old before it's either torn down or so drastically remodled it may as well have been.
Now someone will point to houses that are hundreds of years old and say BS
On the other hand I've been in homes less than 5 yeaRS OLD THAT WERE TORN DOWN TO MAKE WAY FOR A mC mANSION. (oops sorry)
Add a few homes that never get finished plus those which are lost to fire etc. during construction. and I think those numbers are legitimate..
If you look at some of the rust belt cities that are quickly becoming ghost towns.. you'll note that 40 years of neglect can pretty much destroy any building no matter how well constructed it was originally
I have heard about in Germany, it is possible to get a 100 year mortgage. . . I doubt that some of the houses built today will last 100 years. But, if the bank is willing to write a note for a century, they are placing a bet that the house will last that long.
I'm not advocating that the banks start dictating how we build (even more than they do), but it is interesting to think how that would change things here.
I meditate, I burn candles, I drink green tea, and still I want to smack someone.