Where are the Sears Houses - February 2023 Edition

Sears Americus - Temple, PA

It's been about 3 months since the last update of "Where are the Sears Houses?" With the winter weather and the holidays, the pace of discoveries slowed down a bit compared to the last two updates but not by much! Over the past 7 months, we've added over 1,500 new houses to the National Database of Sears Homes. It's been a pretty impressive pace. We'll see if we can keep it going into 2023. Meanwhile, let's see what all these new houses have done to the line up of places where Sears houses have been located. Let's take a look! 

Here is the breakdown of location of houses by state based on approximately 16,000 homes in the database. 

As of the date we passed 16,000 houses, Sears houses have been located in 48 states, the District of Columbia and the Provinces of Alberta and Ontario, Canada. The last 2 states outstanding are Arizona and Hawaii. 

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

1. Ohio (3400+ homes): Ohio added over 140 new homes since the last update taking it past 3,400 homes. Ohio continues to account for over 21% of the houses on the list.

2. Illinois (2500+ homes): Illinois is so close to 2,600 homes! I know it will pass it at the next update. 

Sears Altona - Pekin, IL

3. Pennsylvania (2200+ homes): Pennsylvania added 40 new homes as it cleared the 2,200 home mark. 

4. New York (1900+ homes): After Ohio, New York was the second biggest mover on the list with over 140 new homes added to its total. It's rapidly closing in on 2,000 homes. 

5. Michigan (1100+ homes): Michigan didn't add many new homes but it's still solidly in fifth place. 

Sears Mitchell - Bethlehem, PA

6. Indiana (1000+): Indiana is the latest addition to the 1,000 home club as it had the third highest number of new homes since the last update.  

7. New Jersey (800+): While it didn't add as many homes as it did in the last update, New Jersey keeps up a steady march to 900 homes. 

8. Maryland (350+): Maryland is holding steady at 8th place as it keeps adding homes.

Sears Kilbourne - Rock Hill, SC

9. Virginia (350+): Virginia continues to keep up with Maryland as they both get closer to 400 homes. 

10. Washington DC (299): The District took a step back this update with the loss of 4 homes to demolition, an unfortunate reality in a city with a lot of development pressure. 

11. Kentucky (250+): Kentucky added 14 new homes as it closes in on 300 and a potential move up the list.  

Sears Hazelton - Portsmouth, NH

12. Wisconsin (250+): Wisconsin continued to hold onto 12th place in this update. 

13. Connecticut (200+): Connecticut added another 22 homes in this update as it closes in on 250 homes.  

14. Massachusetts (100+): Massachusetts added a handful of homes taking it ever closer to 150 homes. 

Sears Concord - Republic, OH

15. Missouri (100+): Missouri and West Virginia are tied for 15th place with 122 homes. Which one will take the lead at the next update?

15. West Virginia (100+): All tied up with Missouri!

17. Iowa (100+): Iowa didn't add any new homes this update but it's still within shouting distance of Missouri and West Virginia. 

Currently, there are 17 states where at least 100 Sears houses have been located. The top 10 states account for 86% of the total number of houses on the list. This percentage has dropped again since the last update as the next 10 states on the list have grown in terms of the total number of homes located in those states. 

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.