Where are the Sears Houses - November 2017 Edition

29 Lawrence Ave - Tuckahoe, NY
Sears Alhambra
Image courtesy of Zillow

With our recent appearance on NBC Nightly News and running for re-election here in Novi, it's been a busy few weeks around the Hamilton house. When the national database of Sears homes passed the 8,500 home mark, I took note of it but didn't get a chance to run the numbers. As there's a bit of friendly competition among our group of kit house researchers, I didn't want to keep them waiting too long for an update. Here is the breakdown of location of houses by state based on approximately 8,600 homes in the database. Let's take a look!

As of this date, Sears houses have been located in 44 states, the District of Columbia and the Provinces of Alberta and Ontario, Canada.

The following is a breakdown of the states that have the largest number of identified Sears homes.

1. Ohio (1700+ homes): Ohio is once again on top with over 1,700 homes. As was the case with the last update, Ohio accounts for 20% of the houses on the list.

2. Illinois (1700+ homes): Illinois also crossed the 1,700 home list with this update. The competition between the researchers in Ohio and Illinois continues to be fierce!

3. New York (1100+ homes): New York is now over 1,100 homes and maintains its lead over Pennsylvania but not by much!

4. Pennsylvania (1000+ homes): Pennsylvania easily cleared the 1000 home mark. In fact, it's just shy of 1,100 homes. Knowing the skills of the folks working on homes in Pennsylvania, I'm sure they'll be well past 1,100 at the next update.

5. Michigan (800+ homes): Slow and steady is the pace in Michigan as it continues to work its way towards 900 homes.

6. Indiana (300+): Quite a few new additions to the list were added from Indiana. Will it make it to 400 by the next update? We'll have to wait and see!

7. Maryland (300+): Maryland crept past the 300 home mark.

8.  Washington DC (281): DC continues to maintain its 8th place status. A handful of homes were identified and added to the list since the last update.

10. New Jersey (200+): New Jersey rolled past the 200 mark with the addition of a significant number of homes. It passed Wisconsin to move into 9th place.

10. Wisconsin (175+): Only a handful of homes were added from Wisconsin since the last update which is why it was passed by New Jersey. We'll see if it makes it to 200 at the next update.

11. Virginia (150+): Virginia and Kentucky continue to swap positions at #11 and #12. This update, Virginia has moved past Kentucky by a handful of houses.

12. Kentucky (150+): The number of houses found in Kentucky slowed to a trickle.

Currently, there are 12 states where at least 100 Sears houses have been located in the state. In previous updates, the top 10 states accounted for over 90% of the total houses located. In this update, that percentage fell to just under 90%.

The national database of Sears Modern Homes is the collective work of a number of kit house researchers located across the country. The sources of the information in the database include the personal work of those researchers, the work of other kit house researchers, publicly available resources including newspapers and websites and information provided by home owners and other members of the public with an interest in kit houses.