Imagine buying a home in 1776… What would you have gotten?
Your home description might have sounded something like this:
Features include:
Plumbing – upgraded with two-seater outhouse
Water sourced from a well in the backyard
Lighting: candles only
Heating: fireplaces… in multiple rooms
“Air conditioning”: open a window and hope for a breeze
Access to grocery store: your backyard garden
Parking: plenty of space for horses
Roads: unpaved, uneven, and often more of a suggestion than a system
Windows: original, leaded, drafty, and proudly inefficient
Original hardwood floors… riddled with termite holes
And yet…if you had held onto that home for 250 years, it would have survived:
Dozens of recessions
Multiple wars
The invention of…
automobiles,
airplanes,
television,
smartphones,
AI (plus electricity and indoor plumbing—thankfully!)
It would have survived every housing boom and correction, along with the question buyers have been asking for generations:
“Is now the right time to buy?”
Today, that historic gem would be a fixer-upper—but would qualify for Mills Act status.
And your Zestimate? It would probably need more commas than the Declaration of Independence.
The truth is, while homes have changed dramatically over the last 250 years, the reason people buy them really hasn’t.
A home is still where families gather, traditions begin, memories are made, and over time, equity is built.
Maybe that’s the best reminder this Fourth of July: trends come and go, markets rise and fall, but home has always been one of America’s greatest investments!
Happy 250th Birthday, America
and Happy Fourth of July!
