I roll my eyes when I see posts detailing the history of homes in England. Oh, you can dig up details about your grandmother's house from the 1700s? Isn't that special. In the United States, the oldest building my ancestors ever lived in dates back to about 1900. And the city tore it down decades ago. Nothing lasts too long here.
Anything in this country built in the 1700s is a museum. I had the pleasure of volunteering in one such museum years ago. The Court Inn on Court Street in Newtown, Pennsylvania, dates back to 1733. It's surrounded by elegant old homes. Walking down the street, you feel as if you're back in the Colonial Era. Two doors down from the inn is a beautiful brick home built in 1836. Two blocks down is a house built in 1880, but the original part of the house dates back to 1811. Next door is a stone house built in 1870.
That's ancient for America!
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| Different websites may offer different details about the houses in your family tree. |
If you want to research a house in the U.S., real estate websites are your best bet. I use 3 different websites because they can have different contents. It's a lot of fun when you can view interior photos. I particularly enjoyed looking at the old homes in Newtown, Pennsylvania. They're what I loved most about living there.
Which homes do you want to research? Or do you want to snoop on the neighbors?
Note that I've used purple text in the lists below for features that are very much the same on each website.
My favorite feature of Zillow.com is that it shows property boundaries. Enter an address (or a street and town), then scroll down past the regular map. Look for a satellite image of the neighborhood. If it isn't showing white boundary lines, click the Lot Lines button. Zillow places an estimated home value on each house in the satellite image. Based on my neighborhood, this seems to be the last sale price. Zillow:
- Shows property boundaries with estimated property values.
- Shows the realtor's photos if the house is on the market or was on the market in recent years.
- Provides their own estimate of the property's value.
- Includes many details, including:
- number of bedrooms and baths
- square footage
- lot size
- type of heating
- architectural style
- year built
- Shows the property on a map with comparable homes for sale nearby.
- Shows the price history: the asking price when listed and the sale price going back several years.
- Shows the local tax and assessment history going back several years.
This is my first stop when I know a house is for sale. Realtor:
- Shows property boundaries as you hover your mouse over the map. But it's ignoring my house. I wish the tax assessor would ignore my house.
- Shows the realtor's photos if the house is on the market or was on the market in recent years.
- Provides an estimate of the property's value. They base it on tax records and recent sale prices of comparable properties.
- Includes many details, including:
- number of bedrooms and baths
- square footage
- lot size
- type of heating
- architectural style
- year built
- Shows the price history: the asking price when listed and the sale price going back several years.
- Shows the local tax and assessment history going back several years.
Zillow owns Trulia, but Trulia doesn't have the property boundaries. Trulia:
- Shows the realtor's photos if the house is on the market or was on the market in recent years.
- Provides their own estimate of the property's value.
- Includes many details, including:
- number of bedrooms and baths
- square footage
- lot size
- type of heating
- architectural style
- year built
- Shows the property on a map with comparable homes for sale nearby.
- Shows the price history: the asking price when listed and the sale price going back several years.
- May show recent local tax and assessment.
For me, it was fun looking up the house in California where I was a baby. When I was born, there was a farm in the backyard. Now a huge highway is right over the back fence! Our New Jersey house has interior photos from its last sale in 2020. The last owner upgraded so much, I don't recognize any rooms!
We are a weird place. This is why actual ancient architecture blows our minds.
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