Where are the Sears Houses - December 2019 Edition

Sears Claremont
New Providence, New Jersey

The cold days of winter can be prime days for Sears house hunting. While the snow and ice may keep kit house researchers off the roads, it's the perfect time for us to go online and find homes from Sears Roebuck through real estate listings, newspaper articles, public records and other digital resources. Recently, one of the members of our research group put out the challenge to reach the 12,000 homes mark by the end of 2019. The group stepped up to the challenge and hit 12,000 with weeks to go before the end of the year.

As of this date, Sears houses have been located in 45 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 (2600+ homes): Ohio continues to lead the way with over 2,600 homes, accounting for over 22% of the houses on the list. Over 100 homes from Ohio were added since the last update in June 2019.

2. Illinois (2200+ homes): Illinois continues to sit solidly in second place on the list with close to 2,300 homes. The number of homes from Illinois account for 19% of the houses on the list.

3. Pennsylvania (1600+ homes): Pennsylvania maintains its third place position with over 1,600 homes identified.

4. New York (1300+ homes): New York passed the 1,300 homes mark this update, keeping it in fourth place on the list.

5. Michigan (900+ homes): We continue to find homes in Michigan and at 950 homes, it's moving its way upward towards 1000 homes.

6. Indiana (550+): Indiana blasted past the 500 homes mark with the addition of 80 homes since the last update.

7. New Jersey (500+): New Jersey also cleared the 500 homes mark although it's fallen a bit further behind Indiana since the last update.

8. Maryland (300+): Maryland added a handful of homes while holding onto eighth place.

9. Washington DC (304): Washington DC added two houses since the last update.

10. Virginia (200+): Over 30 houses were located in Virginia since the last update, launching it past Wisconsin and Kentucky to tenth place on the list.

11. Wisconsin (200+): Wisconsin moved down a place on the list after being passed by Virginia. But the margin between the two states is just a handful of homes. Wisconsin did increase its lead over Kentucky with the addition of more homes.

12. Kentucky (200+): Only a couple homes were added since the last update for Kentucky and it moved down one place on the list after being passed by Virginia.

13. Missouri (100): New to the list, Missouri reached the 100 homes mark, earning it a place in the rankings.

Currently, there are 13 states where at least 100 Sears houses have been located within the state, an increase of one with the addition of Missouri this update. Massachusetts is just one house shy of that count. The top 10 states account for 90% of the total number of houses on the list.

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.