The Philly region had some of the oldest homes sold in 2024
The median home sold in the Philadelphia region last year was 25 years older than the median home sold nationwide.
Homes for sale in the Philadelphia area are pretty old, relatively speaking.
The Philadelphia metro area is in the top 10 metros with the oldest median homes sold in 2024, according to an analysis by the online real estate brokerage Redfin.
Homes sold in the region were a median of 61 years old, built in 1963. Only 6% of homes sold last year were younger than 5 years old. About 78% were more than 30 years old.
Nationwide, the typical home sold in 2024 hit a record age. But at 36, the national median was much lower than in the Philadelphia region, according to Redfin, which analyzed information from multiple listing services for the 93 of the 100 most populous metros that had enough data.
The national median age of homes sold in 2024 was nine years older than in 2012, the earliest records Redfin has.
“America’s housing stock is getting older by the year, and it’s not because buyers prefer vintage homes; it’s because we haven’t built enough new ones,” Sheharyar Bokhari, senior economist at Redfin, said in a statement. So buyers have to choose from a pool of aging properties, he said.
“Older homes have aging systems, energy inefficiencies, and a steady stream of maintenance costs that can quickly add up after move-in,” he said.
Overall, older homes cost less to buy than newer ones, but the gap in prices has been shrinking, according to Redfin. That’s partly thanks to builders constructing smaller homes and strong demand in places with older housing stock, which helps drive up costs of older homes.
In the Philadelphia metro, buyers paid a median price of $558,150 for homes that were less than 5 years old. For older homes built more than 30 years ago, buyers paid a median price of $330,000.
Of the top 10 metros with the oldest median homes sold, the Philadelphia region had the most expensive newer and older homes.
Buffalo, N.Y., had the oldest homes sold last year, with a median age of 69. Next was Pittsburgh, where the median age was 68. Syracuse, N.Y.; Springfield, Mass.; and Cleveland rounded out the top 5 with a median age of 65.
Buffalo also had the highest share of homes sold that were more than 30 years old — 87%.
In five metros, the median age of homes sold was less than a decade.