Are they? I live in a house built in 1927, converted from a multi-family to condos in 2009, and it seems fine. I don't live in an earthquake, fire-, or flood-

Are they? I live in a house built in 1927, converted from a multi-family to condos in 2009, and it seems fine. I don't live in an earthquake, fire-, or flood-prone area. I'm not aware of any major structural issues. As far as I know, it's a stick-built structure. I'm not sure what type of sheathing we have, if any. Plywood was certainly in use in 1927. I do agree about the quality, but in this case, that's more due to the insanity of the local real estate market than anything else. A house flipper can do a piss-poor job renovating and then sell for a substantial sum, leaving the owners with the choice of whether to re-do a bunch of work or just live with it. (So far we just live with it). There are some builders in the area who do a really great job. I've seen some very nicely finished houses with great energy efficiency, and they do command a premium, but not enough to encourage the flippers to build to the same standard. Regarding the comments about bulldozing and rebuilding, almost every American city I know of has a historical buildings commission. Good luck getting approvals through to demolish buildings that are under their purview! Lots of renovations happening in the urban cores. If anything, a bit more demolishing and rebuilding should be happening in America's cities. There's a lot of low-rise light industrial and retail in high demand areas that really ought to be at least 3-4 stories with housing above instead. Lots of light rail stops with parking and low-density building around them.