This Is the Oldest House You Can Buy in America

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Apr 19, 9:00AM EDT · Published Apr 18, 11:08AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

This Is the Oldest House You Can Buy in America — © kenlund / Flickr

Homes that are 200 years older or more are not uncommon, particularly in the areas around the 13 original states. Some homes in New England were built in the 1700s. It is rare to find any much older.

Realtor.com looked at all its current listings and found the oldest house for sale now. It was built in 1690. The house sits near the water on Gloucester Harbor at 1 Old Salem Rd., Gloucester, Massachusetts. The house is priced at $699,000.

The house at 1 Old Salem Rd. has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It covers 2,752 square feet and sits on a very small 8,840 square foot lot.

Among the highlights of the listing:

Sections of the house on a corner lot date between 1650 and 1690 and include King’s Timber floor boards, a carved of the house with its thatched roof and a Parson’s cabinet over one of the 4 fireplaces. The 21st Century is well-represented, too, with the addition of a modern kitchen, updated bath, central air, mud room & first floor laundry.- Beautiful formal living & dining rooms, plus a study/home office.

[nativounit]

The house is separated from the water by Stage Fort Park. Gloucester is northeast of Boston.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of July 1, 2019, Gloucester had a population of 30,430. Almost 92% of the residents are white. The median household income at $72,574 is well above the national average. The poverty rate, at 10%, is slightly below the national figure.

Realtor.com calculates that the monthly payment to own the house after a 20% down payment of $139,800 on a 30-year fixed mortgage carrying a 3.161% interest rate will be $3,194, of which $2,406 will be principal and interest.

Click here to see which cities have the oldest homes.
[wallst_email_signup]

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.