Top 8 Places Where You Can Buy A Great Old House
Picking the Best of the Best Wasn’t Easy
For 13 years we’ve been the guilty enablers of your old-house addictions. We know that you’re forever on the hunt for your next fix, and that’s why we, with some assistance from the historic-housing experts at PreservationDirectory.com, set off looking for the best old-house neighborhoods in America.
Our top criteria for choosing a winner included architectural diversity, the craftsmanship of the homes, and the preservation momentum in the area. But we were also interested in neighborhood amenities: walkability, services, and community. What we found is that people who live in historic places aren’t just lovers of golden-age architecture, but of old-fashioned neighborhood values as well. Happy old-house hunting!
1.Centre Park Historic District, Reading, Pennsylvania
The Neighborhood
You won’t be alone if you choose to restore a Victorian-era home in Centre Park, named for the green space at its core. “It’s a tight community,” resident Michael Lauter says, adding that he can hardly walk his neighborhood’s original brick sidewalks without stopping to chat with neighbors. Reading is home to top-notch schools, four universities, and corporations including Carpenter Technology, a stainless steel manufacturer. It’s also just a half-hour commute to Philadelphia.
The Houses
Reading’s wealthy arrived here in the 1870s, building country mansions mimicking Italian villas and British manors. Between 1900 and 1915, tradesmen and industrial workers followed, erecting Queen Annes and unique brick “Reading German” houses, which are 2½ stories high with mansard roofs and large single dormers.
The Prices
You can snatch up a five-bedroom townhouse here for about $60,000, a large Queen Anne for $135,000, and a full-fledged mansion for less than $600,000.
Why Buy Now?
It’s one of the Mid-Atlantic’s most perfectly preserved historic neighborhoods—selling at thrift-store prices. Plus, the city provides 50-50 matching grants of up to $5,000 for facade improvements.
2.Hampton Heights Historic District, Spartanburg, South Carolina
The Neighborhood
Families flock to this enclave within the revitalized Spartanburg city limits for its small-town sensibility: “This is a tight community,” says Kristi Webb, a Hampton Heights resident with a 6-year-old kid. “Everyone knows our daughter, where she lives, and where she should be.” The district is home to an award-winning public high school, making it a draw for parents, many of whom work in the area’s thriving healthcare industry. Downtown Spartanburg—a 10-minute walk from Hampton Heights—is buzzing with restaurants and shops, and the city has increased its focus on family events, like summer concerts.
The Houses
Arts and Crafts and Queen Anne styles predominate, along with Dutch Colonials, Colonial Revivals, and Greek Revivals. Hampton Heights is part of a local historic district, and one-third of the 350 properties here are on the National Register.
The Prices
Homes range from $50,000 for a 1930s Arts and Crafts fixer-upper to $250,000 for a restored Queen Anne.
Why Buy Now?
The preservation Trust of Spartanburg offers down payment and closing cost assistance. Renovations are aided by the organization’s salvage warehouse, a source for affordable materials and period details.
3.Galena, Illinois
The Neighborhood
Once the busiest port between St. Louis and St. Paul, Galena features hundreds of eye-popping homes built in the early to mid-1800s by shipping magnates and heavy-hitters in the area’s lead mines. Today, 85 percent of the town is a National Historic District, with many homes overlooking the Galena River. The town boasts what the Chicago Tribune dubbed “The Best Main Street in the Midwest,” thanks to its well-preserved commercial buildings. With one of Illinois’s top-performing public school systems, Galena is a great place to raise a family. The 15-minute commute to Dubuque, Iowa’s five colleges and universities makes Galena a draw for academics as well.
The Houses
Styles include Neo Classical, Federal, Greek Revival, Second Empire, Gothic Revival, Queen Anne, and Italianate, the most famous of which is the former home of Ulysses S. Grant.
The Prices
A sturdy Greek Revival or Second Empire home can be had for as little as $130,000.
Why Buy Now?
Galena is perfectly positioned as a bedroom community to Dubuque, which has one of the fastest-growing economies in the Midwest. The homes here are in demand and unlikely to drop in value.
4.Kempton’s Corners, New Bedford, Massachusetts
The Neighborhood
The seaside town where Herman Melville set Moby-Dick, New Bedford, is also known for its historic architecture. Its restored mansions are highly coveted, but the more modest neighborhood of Kempton’s Corners and the adjacent Acushnet Heights Historic District offer affordable options, and they’re just a short walk from downtown shops, galleries, and seafood restaurants. The local job market includes work in the civic sector, the textile industry, and the age-old fishing trade. A new commuter rail system to Boston is expected to begin service in the next few years.
The Houses
Kempton’s Corners and Acushnet Heights are best known for single-family and multifamily dwellings in Federal and Greek Revival styles, though New Bedford’s most sought-after neighborhood, the West End, is a cache of large Victorian-era mansions.
The Prices
Though a Victorian can run as much as $800,000, prices in the more accessible Kempton’s Corners and Acushnet Heights start at $180,000 and top off at $300,000.
Why Buy Now?
Kempton’s Corner is one of the final frontiers in New Bedford, and the recent mortgage crisis has left many properties on the market—and priced to sell.
5.Old Louisville, Kentucky
The Neighborhood
Stately homes face one another across lush, gaslit “walking courts,” and yards overflow with geraniums and magnolia trees here. Residents treat gardening like a competitive sport, their efforts celebrated by seasonal garden tours. Central Park, a 17-acre municipal green space designed by famed architect Frederick Law Olmsted, sits adjacent to the neighborhood, which was developed in the 1870s. Old Louisville is just a stone’s throw from the University of Louisville, and the city’s top employers include health insurance provider Humana, bourbon producer Brown Forman Corp., and Republic BankCorp., a financial holding company.
The Houses
Old Louisville has 48 blocks’ worth of Queen Annes, Second Empires, and Stick Victorians. Other styles include Italianate, Tudor, and Georgian Revival, and while many have been restored, others are clamoring for work.
The Prices
A rehabbed manse might run you about $275,000, and prices top out at $800,000.
Why Buy Now?
People gobbling up homes in this neighborhood feel it might one day have the cachet of Boston’s Beacon Hill and other comparable treasure troves. But for now, the prices are far cheaper.
6.Pleasant Ridge, Michigan
The Neighborhood
Just a 30-minute drive from downtown Detroit, Pleasant Ridge isn’t exactly a suburb—it’s one of Michigan’s smallest incorporated cities, with 2,594 residents. Resident Kate Redmond calls it “a time capsule from the 1920s,” when upper-middle-class automobile tycoons built homes and raised families here. It’s long been a draw for folks on the family track; it’s not uncommon for newlyweds to buy a starter home here, trade up to a larger one when the kids arrive, then downsize as the nest empties, but never leave Pleasant Ridge. Public schools spend almost $2,000 more per student than the national average, and class sizes average just 18 students per teacher.
The Houses
Arts & Crafts homes, English Tudors, Prairie Schools, Georgian Revivals, and Dutch Colonials are all here.
Prices
Prices range from the low $100,000s for a modest bungalow to over a million for a big Colonial Revival or Tudor.
Why Buy Now?
Pleasant Ridge is already home to two national historic districts, and plans are under way to list the city, established in the 1830s, on the National Register. This small city stands to retain its historic fabric long into the future.
7.Victorian Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York
The Neighborhood
Victorian Flatbush, in one of Brooklyn’s six original villages, can catch those who wander into it by surprise—even New Yorkers, many of whom have never heard of this architectural anomaly. Indeed, the ‘hood’s outstanding lineup of freestanding Queen Anne and English Tudor homes set along broad, tree-lined streets renders it much more Charles Dickens than “Welcome Back, Kotter.” Just a subway ride away from Manhattan, Flatbush is also a short walk from 585-acre Prospect Park.
The Houses
Hundreds of Queen Annes, Tudors, and other Victorian-era homes line the streets, though house hunters looking for single-family properties may have to undo old multifamily conversions.
The Prices
Fixer-uppers are available for $600,000 to $900,000 (cheap by Big Apple standards); a restored home will run you a cool million or more.
Why Buy Now?
Brooklyn real estate, on fire since the 1990s, remains largely unscathed by the national housing crisis. A constant influx of people means the chances of declining property values are slim to none.
8.Albany, Oregon
The Neighborhood
Albany boasts 100 blocks and four distinct national historic districts’ worth of great historic architecture. “No two homes are identical,” resident Heidi Overman says of the Victorian-era structures lining streets here. Locals see the Willamette River town as a smaller alternative to nearby Portland and Seattle, and its citizens take pride in its big-city attractions, including museums, theaters, and watering holes. Albany is just 12 miles from Oregon State University, and Hewlett-Packard is also a major employer in the area.
The Houses
When architect George McMath visited in 1977 to inventory historic homes, he found just about every housing style built between 1840 and 1920, including Federal, Gothic Revival, American Farmhouse, Second Empire, Eastlake, Italianate, and Colonial Revival.
The Prices
Home prices in Albany’s national historic districts range from $90,000 for a run-down Italianate to $400,000 for a fully restored one.
Why Buy Now?
Get your hands on that $90,000 fixer-upper before it’s too late. Despite slumping markets across the country, property values continue to rise here as people put off by growth in Portland and Seattle discover the place’s charms.
