In article , (Raymond Yeung) wrote:
My wife and I are looking for a house/condo/apartment in the
South Bay Area of California. We've some earthquake related
questions:
[...]

3. There're a lot of 40-50 year old houses selling at over half a
million here due to school district. My impression is that wood
framed structure tends to age and become weaker. Is this true?

Well, Raymond, I live in Indiana, where we don't worry much about earthquakes,
and so my opinion on this subject may be worth exactly what you're paying for
it... but it seems obvious to me that a 40-50 year old building that's still
standing has proven that it's able to withstand whatever quakes have occurred
in that area in the last 40-50 years. And some of those have been pretty big.