How to find the history of a house

What "the history of a house" is made of

A house leaves a paper trail in four places, and each one answers a different question:

For homes older than living memory, add the census and old maps, which tell you who lived there and what stood on the lot. Old listing photos are their own search; we cover them in how to find old listing photos.

Past listings and sale prices: Zillow and Redfin

Search the full street address. Zillow notes that pages for homes that are not for sale, for rent or recently sold "can only be searched by entering the full address," so a map search may miss them.

• Zillow: Price history and Tax history. Zillow's help center says its "price history is sourced from Internet Data Exchange (IDX) feeds sent to Zillow directly from the MLS," while tax assessment information comes "from public county records," collected by a third-party data provider. So the price history is the listing record, and the tax history is the county's.
• Redfin: Sale and Tax History and Public Facts. Redfin lists the past sales it has for an address, and its Public Facts (beds, baths, square footage) come from a third party that gets them "directly from the local county assessor and recorder offices." When a home is delisted from the MLS, Redfin removes the photos, price and description and shows the last sale or county records instead.

The two sources often disagree, and Redfin explains why: after a remodel the MLS listing usually has the current beds, baths and square footage, while "the assessor's records are typically much slower to update," and the MLS "year built" is sometimes the year of a major remodel rather than the original structure. When numbers differ, the listing tells you what the house is now; the county tells you what was recorded.

Owners and sales: the county recorder

The legal record of who owned a house is the chain of deeds at the county recorder's office (the name varies: recorder, register of deeds, county clerk). Most counties have an online search by owner name, and many by address or parcel number; older deeds may only be on microfilm or in books at the office.

1. Find the parcel number (APN) on the county assessor's website, or on the tax bill. It is the most reliable search key.
2. Search the recorder's index for the current owner, open the latest deed, and note the previous owner it names (the grantor).
3. Search for that owner, open their deed, and repeat. Each deed points one step back, which is why this is called running the chain of title.
4. Note mortgages and releases along the way; they date refinances and payoffs, and sometimes major work.

Some recorders charge for official or certified copies, so check the fee before you order. If the county has no online search, call the office. Title companies run the same search professionally if you need it for a sale.

Additions and remodels: building permits

Permits are kept by whoever issues them, usually the city's building or planning department, or the county for homes outside city limits. Many have an online permit portal searchable by address; others take a written records request.

• What to look for: additions, finished basements, decks, roofs, and electrical, plumbing or HVAC work, each with an issue date and a final inspection.
• Open or expired permits (work started but never signed off) are worth knowing about before you buy, because a later buyer or lender may ask for them to be closed.
• Compare with the listing. A bedroom or bathroom that appears in the listing but in no permit and not in the assessor's record is a question for the seller.
• Old records thin out. Many departments only have digital records from recent decades; ask what they keep on paper or microfilm.

Older homes: census records and fire insurance maps

For a home built before the 1950s, two free national sources help you put names and shapes to the address.

• Census records. Individual census records stay closed for 72 years, so the 1950 census is the newest one open; the National Archives released it on April 1, 2022. It has digitized the 1950 population schedules, enumeration district maps and descriptions, and offers them free online, searchable by name and location. Earlier censuses work the same way: find the street, then the household.
• Sanborn fire insurance maps. The Library of Congress has put its Sanborn maps online. They were drawn for insurers and show the structure and use of buildings in U.S. cities and towns, from the late 1880s to the early 1960s. Comparing editions shows when a house first appears on its lot and how its footprint changed.
• Local sources. City directories, the local historical society and the public library's local-history room often fill the gaps between censuses.

Old listing pages and photos: the Wayback Machine

The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine stores copies of web pages over time, so an old Zillow, Redfin or agent page can still show a past asking price and description. It searches by URL, not by street address, and many pages were never captured. The full method, along with getting old listing photos from the MLS through an agent, is in our guide to finding old listing photos.

Adding to the history: new photos when you sell

If you are looking up the history because you are about to list the home, don't plan on reusing the old photos. Zillow's help center says that "photos provided by previous agents or homeowners cannot be used for future listings." Why, in full: who owns listing photos.

New photos don't have to be a big job. With the October app you walk the home with an iPhone 12 or newer; it shows you where to stand in each room, keeps the phone level and takes the pictures. October's photos are AI-generated from that capture: an AI image model draws the finished photos with a daylight look and loose items left out, usually within a few hours, with a walkthrough video if you want one. The model is told to keep walls, floors, windows, fittings and the view, but compare each photo with the room before you publish it, and label it as AI-altered where your MLS requires. A place of up to 6 rooms is $49 for photos or $99 with a walkthrough, and your first place is free. See pricing and our real estate photography cost guide.

Step by step

1. Look up the address on Zillow and Redfin

   Search the full street address and read Price history (from the MLS) and Tax history or Public Facts (from the county) for past listings, price changes and sales.

2. Find the parcel number at the county assessor

   Search the assessor's site by address for the parcel number, year built, square footage and assessed values.

3. Run the deeds at the county recorder

   Search the recorder's index by owner or parcel, open each deed and follow the previous owner back one sale at a time.

4. Check building permits

   Search the city or county building department's permit records by address for additions, remodels and open permits.

5. Go back further with archives

   For older homes, search the free 1950 census at the National Archives by location, and compare Sanborn fire insurance maps at the Library of Congress.

6. Find old listing pages

   Paste old portal or agent page URLs into the Wayback Machine, and ask an agent to pull past listings from the MLS.

Questions