Older homes cost more to maintain than new homes. Here are the descriptive statistics for each city. Housing price is price per square foot.
Maintenance includes renovation work.
Part of this is due to a wider variations in types and ages of homes. It is true that lower quality homes are valued less than higher quality homes. In some urban housing markets, there is a negative correlation between housing quality and age. This implies that older homes are lower quality and therefore, are valued less. The relationship between age and quality does not hold for many markets, there are plenty of examples of older homes in the Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco, New York and Chicago housing markets that are highly valued.