If you compare a house built in 1910 to one build in 1950 you are on balance often right. These days most new houses I see have larger rooms, thicker walls. T

If you compare a house built in 1910 to one build in 1950 you are on balance often right. These days most new houses I see have larger rooms, thicker walls. The modern house often does feel worse made, but as an engineer I know enough to look beneath the covers and it is very clear that the worst modern house is significantly higher quality than the best old ones - but this often doesn't translate to "feelings", and so the poorly insulated house that just barely stands (and is a fire hazard) feels better even though it is inferior in all structural ways. When I look at the streetcar suburbs of my city (1880s) I see lots are on average about the same size as lots today, and houses were generally much smaller. But the lots were deeper and narrower so how they feel is different.