Across central Phoenix, south Scottsdale, west Mesa, Tempe and Glendale sits a large stock of single-story homes built roughly between 1946 and 1970. Concrete masonry walls, simple roof framing, modest footprints, flat lots.
They are frequently the best renovation value in the Valley, and they are frequently passed over because they photograph badly. Dated finishes, small windows, compartmented rooms. What that presentation hides is a structure that is often unusually accommodating.
Why the structure helps you
In a typical home of this era, the concrete block walls on the perimeter are doing the structural work. Interior walls are frequently light timber partitions carrying little or nothing. That arrangement is close to ideal for reconfiguration: the walls you most want to remove are often the ones holding up the least.
Roof framing tends to be straightforward — conventional rafters or simple trusses with modest spans. Ceilings are usually flat and low by current taste, which sounds like a drawback and is sometimes an opportunity, because opening a flat ceiling into the roof space can transform a room where the framing allows it.
Block itself is durable, performs reasonably in this climate, and does not rot or attract termites. A sixty-year-old block wall in good condition is generally still a good wall.
What to check before you fall in love
The roof and its history
Many of these homes have low-slope or flat roof sections, which have a different service life and failure pattern from pitched tile. Establish what covering is on it, when it was last done, and whether there is any history of ponding or repair.
Electrical service
A home of this age may still have its original service, and original capacity was sized for a very different household. Adding a modern kitchen, a second HVAC unit, a pool, or an EV charger can exceed what the existing service supports. Upgrading is routine work but it is real money and it is easy to leave out of a budget.
Also worth establishing: what the branch wiring is. Some homes of this era contain materials or methods that insurers ask about.
Plumbing material
Supply and drain materials from this period vary, and some have well-documented service lives. Galvanized supply lines corrode internally and restrict flow. Cast-iron drains deteriorate from the inside. A sewer camera inspection is inexpensive relative to what it can reveal, and on a house of this age it is one of the highest-value checks available.
Windows and insulation
Original single-glazed aluminum windows conduct heat enthusiastically, which matters here more than almost anywhere. Wall insulation in block construction is frequently minimal or absent. Both are addressable, both affect comfort and running cost, and neither is visible in a photograph.
What has already been done to it
Sixty years is long enough for several owners to have had ideas. Additions, enclosed carports, converted garages and reworked bathrooms are common. The question is whether that work was permitted and competently done. Unpermitted additions are a recurring complication at resale and occasionally at insurance.
Where the opportunity actually sits
The combination that makes these homes worth attention: a structure that permits change, a lot that is usually larger than anything being built new at that price, an established neighborhood with mature trees, and an interior that is a generation or two behind.
The work is predictable in kind — systems, windows, kitchen, bathrooms, layout — and the structure rarely fights you. That is a very different proposition from a house where the bones are the problem.
The ones to be careful with are those where the roof is unresolved, the service is original, the drains are failing and nothing has been touched in forty years. All of that is fixable, and all of it needs to be in the number before you offer.
Common questions
Are block homes harder to renovate than wood-frame?
Not generally, and often easier for layout changes, because the perimeter block is doing the structural work and the interior partitions frequently are not. Block does make some things different — running new services through an exterior wall, or cutting a new opening in one, is more involved than in timber framing.
What is the single most useful check on a house of this age?
A sewer camera inspection is hard to beat for value. Drain material from this era has a finite life, a failing line is expensive and disruptive to replace, and none of it is visible any other way. Electrical service capacity is a close second.
Can I open the ceiling into the roof space?
Sometimes, and it is one of the most transformative changes available in these homes. Whether it works depends on the roof framing: conventional rafters are frequently more accommodating than engineered trusses. It needs structural assessment before it goes in a budget.
This is general information to help you ask better questions about a specific property. It is not an inspection, an engineering opinion, an appraisal or legal advice, and it does not replace the licensed professionals who provide those.
Where this applies
Related reading
- Can You Open Up a 1990s or 2000s Floor Plan? The most common renovation request in the East Valley, and the one most often priced wrong.
- What a Historic District Overlay Changes About Renovating Not a reason to avoid these homes. A reason to plan differently.
- Renovation Sequencing: The Order the Work Has to Happen In Doing the right work in the wrong order is how budgets go sideways.