It's not where, but when. I worked with a very knowledgeable realtor a few years ago when buying my house. He described (and we observed) a series of trends.
Older houses (in my area, that's early 1900s, laugh away you European readers) were built with huge beams of old-growth timber by careful craftsmen (sometimes in the Craftsman style, sometimes colonial or victorian). Houses this old typically had antique plumbing and electrical service, which needed (or now really need) upgrades, and they also will likely need window and/or siding replacement. During these repairs and remodels, smart homeowners and contractors also upgrade the energy efficiency, and there's a very strong skeleton on which to do so.
Shortly after WWII, there was a lumber shortage. You can drive around and identify the neighborhoods which were constructed in the late 40s and early 50s because the eaves only project a few inches out from the walls. These were built as fast and cheaply as possible. But for a while, energy - especially for heat - was cheap, so they kept building them.
Since then, energy has become variously more and less expensive, and manufacturing/construction techniques have produced cycles of lower quality cookie-cutter cost-optimized goods and higher-quality standardized, well engineered construction. We're riding high on an efficiency swing right now, to the point of absurdities like homes so well air-sealed between Tyvek, caulk, and air-tight electrical fixtures that you're required to install an air vent to the outdoors in the furnace room to prevent negative pressure problems.
Older houses (in my area, that's early 1900s, laugh away you European readers) were built with huge beams of old-growth timber by careful craftsmen (sometimes in the Craftsman style, sometimes colonial or victorian). Houses this old typically had antique plumbing and electrical service, which needed (or now really need) upgrades, and they also will likely need window and/or siding replacement. During these repairs and remodels, smart homeowners and contractors also upgrade the energy efficiency, and there's a very strong skeleton on which to do so.
Shortly after WWII, there was a lumber shortage. You can drive around and identify the neighborhoods which were constructed in the late 40s and early 50s because the eaves only project a few inches out from the walls. These were built as fast and cheaply as possible. But for a while, energy - especially for heat - was cheap, so they kept building them.
Since then, energy has become variously more and less expensive, and manufacturing/construction techniques have produced cycles of lower quality cookie-cutter cost-optimized goods and higher-quality standardized, well engineered construction. We're riding high on an efficiency swing right now, to the point of absurdities like homes so well air-sealed between Tyvek, caulk, and air-tight electrical fixtures that you're required to install an air vent to the outdoors in the furnace room to prevent negative pressure problems.