More risk buying an old home?-East Coast vs. West Coast (houses, earthquakes)

[Panks]

Can anyone tell me if there is more chance of buying a lemon and having big problems and repair bills if you buy an older home on the East coast vs the West?
By old I mean 1900-1930's. East coast as in VA,NJ,PA.

I was wondering if the humidity and big changes in temp and the snow mean that the East gets more termites and wood rot and foundation cracks and who knows what else!?

Also, why are there no basements in houses on the west coast??? Does it have to do with earthquakes or flooding?

[tahiti]

Originally Posted by Panks

Can anyone tell me if there is more chance of buying a lemon and having big problems and repair bills if you buy an older home on the East coast vs the West?
By old I mean 1900-1930's. East coast as in VA,NJ,PA.

I was wondering if the humidity and big changes in temp and the snow mean that the East gets more termites and wood rot and foundation cracks and who knows what else!?

Also, why are there no basements in houses on the west coast??? Does it have to do with earthquakes or flooding?

that's a good question and I'd be interested in the answers. my first thought was that older houses in those 3 east coast states would have a tendency to have more issues, all things being equal (upkeep, etc), because of the weather fluctuation - kind of like cars around here have more rust than cars in SoCal.

i'd also like to know the answer re: basements. with the exception of "levittown" type towns, and houses right on some body of water, the majority do have basements here. it seems once you go past the Denver area west, basements are all but non-existent. is it water tables? hard ground?

[Katarina Witt]

It sure as H*** isn't the water table in most western states. The western US is historically dry till you get to N. Cali. I don't know the answer either; we have basements here in Colorado, generally.

[Waterlily]

Some of the houses here in the PNW have basements too. I'm on the Oregon coast. All the houses on my block have basements but they are older homes. Most of the newer homes that I see don't have basements.

I've not seen basements in California much. It's probably the building cost to add a basement.

[mels]

I lived in a house at one time in New England built in the 1700's. It had never had termites to the best of my knowledge, the foundation started to crack just a little at about the 260 year old mark and was fixed. I am originally from New England and don't know of anyone who has ever had a termite problem in that area. Not that it doesn't happen, but it isn't common. Now when I lived in Florida it seemed like a common thing. So my point is the changes in weather don't seem to adversely affect homes that are built decently.