Average Age Of Homes By State In The United States For 2026
The median US home is 43 years old, and the gap runs from 27 years in Nevada to 65 in New York. See the average age of homes by state, mapped and ranked.
Ask three good sources how old American houses are and you’ll get 42, 43, and 44, so we went to the Census data behind them all and mapped the average age of homes by state. The typical US home was built in 1981, making it 43 years old at the newest survey, and the state gap is enormous: Nevada’s median house is 27 while New York’s is 65.
The typical American home is 43 years old counting all housing units, or 42 counting only owner-occupied houses, and both numbers come from the same Census survey.
New York has the oldest homes of any state at a median of 65 years, with Rhode Island and Massachusetts both about 60.
Nevada has the newest stock at 27 years, and Texas has built a full quarter of its housing since 2010.
Nearly half of all US homes, 48.1 percent, were built before 1980, the year lead paint rules and modern codes started reshaping construction.
The stock is aging fast: the median build year moved only 10 years since 2000 while the calendar moved 24.
The full 50-state table, the map, and what an aging house costs to keep are below.
How old is the average house in the US?
The average house in the US is 43 years old, with a median build year of 1981 across all 146,740,960 housing units in the newest Census survey. The median age of owner-occupied homes is 42. Both are American Community Survey numbers, and the one-year difference is just renters living in slightly older buildings.
So why have you also heard 44? All three are right. The 44 comes from Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies tabulations of the 2023 American Housing Survey, a different Census survey measuring the whole stock, and almost nobody who quotes any of these numbers says which universe it counts.
The three true answers to “how old is the average American house?” Each is a different universe of the same question.
43years, all housing unitsCensus ACS, newest survey
44years, whole stockHarvard JCHS, American Housing Survey 2023
Sources: Census Bureau ACS 2024 one-year estimates (tables B25035, B25037); Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies tabulations of the 2023 American Housing Survey.
Which state has the oldest houses?
New York, and it isn’t close: the median New York home was built in 1959, making it 65 years old, the oldest of any state. Rhode Island and Massachusetts follow, both about 60, then Pennsylvania at 58 and Connecticut at 57. The whole top five sits in the Northeast.
Washington DC deserves its own sentence. The city’s median owner-occupied house was built in 1944, meaning half the owner-occupied homes in the capital are at least 80 years old, even though its rental stock is decades newer.
At the other end sits Nevada, where the median home is 27 years old. Utah, Texas, and Arizona all come in at 30, and South Carolina at 31. The pattern is plain: people moved south and west, and the houses followed.
Map: the average age of homes by state, ranked oldest to newest. Shading covers all housing units in the newest Census survey, darkest = oldest (New York, 65 years).Median home age by state in years, all housing units, from Nevada’s 27 up to New York’s 65.
Source: Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 one-year estimates, table B25035. Age = survey year minus median year built.
The table below covers every state plus DC: median age counting all housing units, the median build year behind it, the owner-occupied age, and how much of each state’s stock was built before 1940, before 1980, and since 2010. Sort it however you want.
Average age of homes by state: all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., ranked oldest to newest by median age across all housing units (newest Census survey; the Age and Year built columns). Owner age is the owner-occupied median, which differs slightly because rental stock skews older or newer by state. One-year gaps are within the margin of error; treat them as ties. Click a header to sort.
Rank
State
Age
Year built
Owner age
Pre-1940
Pre-1980
2010+
1
New York
65
1959
64
30.1%
73.2%
7.1%
2
District of Columbia
64
1960
80
31.0%
66.3%
20.6%
3
Rhode Island
60
1964
59
27.3%
69.1%
5.7%
4
Massachusetts
59
1965
59
30.2%
66.2%
8.6%
5
Pennsylvania
58
1966
58
24.8%
66.3%
7.3%
6
Connecticut
57
1967
57
20.5%
67.3%
5.8%
7
Illinois
53
1971
52
20.0%
62.2%
6.8%
8
New Jersey
53
1971
55
17.2%
61.0%
8.9%
9
Ohio
53
1971
53
18.8%
62.0%
8.2%
10
Michigan
52
1972
52
14.5%
61.4%
7.1%
11
Iowa
51
1973
52
22.4%
59.6%
12.6%
12
Kansas
48
1976
48
15.5%
54.8%
10.8%
13
Nebraska
48
1976
49
18.4%
55.8%
13.6%
14
Wisconsin
48
1976
49
17.5%
55.4%
10.4%
15
California
47
1977
47
8.8%
54.8%
9.5%
16
Indiana
47
1977
46
15.8%
53.3%
11.8%
17
Vermont
47
1977
47
22.0%
54.9%
9.2%
18
West Virginia
47
1977
46
14.6%
54.6%
9.2%
19
Maine
46
1978
43
22.4%
52.5%
9.9%
20
Missouri
46
1978
44
13.0%
52.2%
11.2%
21
Minnesota
45
1979
45
15.3%
51.3%
12.9%
22
Maryland
44
1980
43
10.3%
50.4%
11.0%
23
New Hampshire
44
1980
42
18.2%
50.6%
9.5%
24
Hawaii
43
1981
42
2.9%
48.8%
11.9%
25
Oklahoma
42
1982
40
6.8%
47.5%
15.4%
26
Oregon
42
1982
43
10.5%
48.0%
14.0%
27
Wyoming
42
1982
42
10.7%
47.5%
12.8%
28
Kentucky
41
1983
39
8.9%
46.1%
13.1%
29
Louisiana
41
1983
38
5.6%
45.5%
15.7%
30
Montana
41
1983
40
12.0%
47.4%
16.8%
31
South Dakota
40
1984
41
14.1%
46.7%
19.1%
32
New Mexico
39
1985
37
4.4%
41.6%
11.3%
33
North Dakota
39
1985
44
10.6%
44.6%
22.7%
34
Virginia
39
1985
38
6.9%
42.4%
13.5%
35
Alaska
38
1986
38
1.3%
36.7%
11.8%
36
Alabama
37
1987
34
4.6%
41.0%
15.7%
37
Mississippi
37
1987
33
3.7%
40.1%
14.5%
38
Washington
37
1987
38
9.3%
41.5%
17.2%
39
Delaware
36
1988
34
8.1%
40.9%
18.7%
40
Tennessee
36
1988
33
5.6%
38.9%
18.5%
41
Arkansas
35
1989
33
3.8%
38.0%
17.0%
42
Colorado
35
1989
34
6.6%
37.8%
19.4%
43
Florida
34
1990
33
1.8%
32.0%
17.8%
44
Georgia
31
1993
29
3.9%
30.3%
17.6%
45
Idaho
31
1993
30
6.9%
36.4%
21.4%
46
North Carolina
31
1993
30
4.7%
32.5%
19.7%
47
South Carolina
31
1993
29
3.4%
31.9%
22.1%
48
Arizona
30
1994
29
1.4%
27.9%
17.9%
49
Texas
30
1994
28
2.9%
31.2%
25.3%
50
Utah
30
1994
30
5.8%
33.1%
24.5%
51
Nevada
27
1997
25
0.9%
20.7%
18.7%
–
USA
43
1981
42
11.5%
48.1%
13.8%
Source: Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 one-year estimates, tables B25034, B25035, B25037.
America’s housing stock is the oldest ever measured
In 2000, the median American home had been built in 1971. By 2010 the median build year had crept to 1975, and the newest survey puts it at 1981. Do the math and it’s sobering: the calendar moved 24 years while the median home moved just 10, so the housing stock aged about 14 years in a generation.
Harvard’s researchers see the same thing in their survey: a median stock age of 28 years in 1993, 39 by 2013, and 44 by 2023, the oldest on record. The cause is no mystery. Builders never fully recovered from the 2008 crash, and only 4.1 percent of today’s stock has been built in the 2020s.
The national median year built, 2000 to 2024. The calendar moved 24 years; the median home moved 10. The dashed stretch bridges the decennial-to-ACS gap, and the open dot marks the pandemic-year five-year estimate.
Full series, median year built: 1971 (2000, Census long form); 1975 (2010); 1976 (2011); 1976 (2012); 1976 (2013); 1976 (2014); 1977 (2015); 1977 (2016); 1978 (2017); 1978 (2018); 1978 (2019); 1978 (5yr) (2020); 1980 (2021); 1981 (2022); 1981 (2023); 1981 (2024).
Sources: Census 2000 Summary File 3 (H035); ACS one-year estimates 2010–2024 (B25035); 2020 from the five-year estimate.
When were American homes actually built?
The 1970s built more of today’s homes than any other decade, 13.7 percent of everything standing. The 2000s are right behind at 13.6 percent, then the 1980s at 12.6. The surprise is the tails: homes from before 1940 still make up 11.5 percent of the stock, nearly triple the 2020s’ share so far.
The tails are where states separate. In DC, Massachusetts, and New York, around 30 percent of homes predate 1940; in Nevada it’s 0.9 percent. Flip it forward and Texas has built 25.3 percent of its stock since 2010, while Rhode Island has managed 5.7 percent.
When today’s 146.7 million homes were built: share of the current stock by construction decade, all housing units. The 1970s built more of today’s homes than any other decade; the 2020s have added 4.1% so far.
Pre-194011.5%
1940s4.2%
1950s9.1%
1960s9.6%
1970s13.7%
1980s12.6%
1990s11.8%
2000s13.6%
2010s9.7%
2020s so far4.1%
Source: Census Bureau, ACS 2024 one-year estimates, table B25034.
What an old house costs to keep
Here’s where age stops being trivia. Homeowners in pre-1960 houses spent an average of $6,000 a year on improvements and repairs, against $4,500 for homes built since 2010, per Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies tabulations of the 2023 American Housing Survey. And 22 million owners, one in four, live in those pre-1960 homes.
The money follows income more than need. Among owners of pre-1960 homes, the top income fifth spent $12,700 a year on upkeep while the bottom fifth spent $3,400, per the same JCHS analysis. Skipped repairs pile up: a 2025 Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia estimate, reported by JCHS, found 48 percent of owner-occupied pre-1940 homes needed at least one repair, with the collective bill at 23.9 billion dollars.
If you’ve absorbed the folk rule about avoiding houses older than the late seventies, the data half agrees. Homes built before 1980, the era before lead paint bans and modern codes fully took hold, are 48.1 percent of the stock, and 5.4 percent of pre-1960 owner homes are rated physically inadequate versus 1.3 percent of new ones. But read that again the other way: about 19 in 20 of even the oldest homes are structurally fine.
What home age does to the upkeep ledger, per Harvard JCHS tabulations of the 2023 American Housing Survey (owner-occupied homes).
$6,000 vs $4,500average yearly improvement and repair spending: homes built before 1960 vs since 2010JCHS / AHS 2023
5.4% vs 1.3%share rated physically inadequate: pre-1960 vs post-2010 owner homesJCHS / AHS 2023
Where rentals and owner homes come from different eras
In most states owner homes and rentals are roughly the same age, but a few places split hard. North Dakota’s owner-occupied homes are 14 years older than its rentals, because the oil boom built apartments, not farmhouses. DC is the extreme: owner rowhouses with a median build year of 1944 sit beside rentals from 1971.
Delaware runs the other way. Its owner stock is 10 years newer than its rentals, with Maine and New Hampshire close behind. New construction there has gone to buyers, not landlords.
Two places where owner homes and rentals come from different eras.
1980 vs 1994North Dakota: median owner home vs median rental. The oil boom built apartments, not farmhouses.ACS 2024, table B25037
1944 vs 1971Washington DC: median owner rowhouse vs median rental, a 27-year gap.ACS 2024, table B25037
Methodology: where these numbers come from
State figures come from the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey one-year estimates, tables B25035 (median year built, all units), B25037 (median year built by tenure), and B25034 (year-built distribution). Ages equal the survey year minus the median build year, the same convention the industry uses. The trend series runs from the 2000 Census long form through the 2010 to 2024 ACS, with the pandemic-era 2020 point taken from the five-year estimate and labeled.
Maintenance and condition figures are Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies tabulations of the 2023 American Housing Survey, a separate Census survey of the whole stock; that’s also where the widely quoted 44-year figure lives. County-level extremes mentioned in passing come from a 2024 analysis of Census county data by Today’s Homeowner. We treat one-year gaps between states as ties, since these medians carry margins of error of about a year.
State ages: ACS 2024 1-year, tables B25034 / B25035 / B25037 (all-units and by tenure)
Trend: Census 2000 SF3 (H035) + ACS 1-year 2010–2024; 2020 bridged with the 5-year estimate
Upkeep and condition: Harvard JCHS tabulations of the 2023 American Housing Survey
Age convention: survey year minus median year built; one-year state gaps treated as ties
For the broader picture of what those homes cost and who owns them, our US housing statistics page covers the same survey top to bottom. Home age also isn’t tenure: how long people stay put is a different number, covered in our length of home ownership breakdown.
Bottom line
America’s houses are the oldest they’ve ever been, and they’re aging in place because we stopped building enough new ones. Half the country’s homes predate 1980. Whether that’s charm or liability depends mostly on the maintenance ledger, and the data says the ledger runs about $1,500 a year heavier in an old house.
If you’re comparing states, the table above is the honest starting point. A “normal” house is a 1959 build in New York and a 1997 build in Nevada, and both owners think theirs is typical.
Frequently asked questions
Is the average US home 44 years old?
Yes, by one of the three official measures: 44 years is the Harvard JCHS figure from the 2023 American Housing Survey, covering the whole housing stock. The newest Census American Community Survey puts the median at 43 years across all housing units, or 42 for owner-occupied homes. All three are correct; they count slightly different universes.
What is median year built?
Median year built is the year that splits a place’s housing stock in half: 50 percent of homes were built before it and 50 percent after. Nationally that year is 1981 across all housing units. The Census Bureau reports it in American Community Survey table B25035, and it’s the cleanest way to compare housing age across states.
Is a 100 year old house too old to buy?
Not automatically: homes built before 1940 are 11.5 percent of the US stock, and most are structurally sound. But budget honestly, since 48 percent of owner-occupied pre-1940 homes needed at least one repair per a Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia estimate, and pre-1960 owners average $6,000 a year in upkeep. Inspect for lead, wiring, and plumbing from the era.
What is the oldest house in America?
The oldest surviving English timber-frame house in America is the Fairbanks House in Dedham, Massachusetts, built around 1637. Adobe pueblo dwellings in New Mexico have been continuously inhabited far longer. Neither moves the statistics: homes that old are a rounding error in a 146.7 million-unit housing stock.
Which states have the newest homes?
Nevada has the newest homes, with a median age of 27 years, followed by Utah, Texas, and Arizona at 30 and South Carolina at 31. Texas is the volume story, with 25.3 percent of its entire housing stock built since 2010. Fast-growing Sun Belt and Mountain West states dominate the young end of the table.
US Census Bureau. “American Community Survey, 2024 1-Year Estimates, Table B25037: Median Year Structure Built by Tenure.” 2025. data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2024.B25037
Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.
He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.
If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.
