These US Cities Has the Most Oldest Homes Still in 2024

The United States is a relatively young country. During China’s war for independence from England, the Qing Dynasty had already been in power for 130 years. India’s Mughal Empire was starting to fall apart after ruling for over two centuries. Meanwhile, France was on the brink of violently overthrowing almost 1,000 years of absolute monarchy. Today, some Italians live in homes that were originally built during the Middle Ages.

In the United States, the majority of homes and historical sites are relatively new, unless they are indigenous or pre-colonial. Most Americans live in homes that were built after World War II during the suburbanization boom.

Because of this, residential structures in this country are easily considered “old.” The U.S. Census Bureau defines a city as having a large number of old homes if a significant portion of its residential properties were built before 1960. For instance, over 80% of the homes in Levittown, New York, were built before 1960. This means that Levittown is considered relatively old, even though most of its homes were constructed during a building boom that started in 1949.

To find out which American cities have the oldest homes, 24/7 Tempo looked at data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey. The data covers a five-year period and includes information on the age of housing units. We ranked cities, towns, villages, and Census-designated places with at least 50,000 residents based on the percentage of housing units built before 1960. The additional information about housing units built in 2000 or later, the median home value for all housing units, and the total population also came from the 2021 ACS. These estimates are based on data collected over a five-year period. The information about historic places is from the National Register of Historic Places and was last updated in July 2023.