I'd disagree that houses are the same as they used to be. There's a spectrum of housing from from degraded to new to renovated. But the ideal house today, compa

I'd disagree that houses are the same as they used to be. There's a spectrum of housing from from degraded to new to renovated. But the ideal house today, compared to the past, today's house has so many more luxuries and conveniences: appliances, energy efficiency, air quality, amount and variety of lighting, safety standards and knowledge of advanced materials, there's literally no system that you can't improve in a house. Even the humble hand made log cabin could be outfitted with an efficient modern solar battery system with a precisely engineered woodstove to boot. All this to say, many houses are upgraded over time, not merely degraded. I'd much rather live in my house now after the decades of upgrades than when it was freshly made in the 70s.