It is nice to be able to call a contractor and get work done but most people don't have the spare cash for $10K to $100K remodels. And, even if you do have the money, you may choose not to spend it on a remodel. You have to spend money for necessities like heat, roof, painting, plumbing, electrical, windows, driveway that require regular (though not frequent) maintenance. You have to spend time and money on landscaping, snow removal, maybe trash pickup. If you want to see this at a higher level, look at Newton, Waltham, Lexington and other Boston suburbs. There are a lot of old homes coming up for sale because elderly folks are passing homes on to their children. A lot of these turn into teardowns because the homes were built 100 years ago and it is just very hard to remodel into something that modern buyers demand.