New homes are generally more desirable in the US, unless you live somewhere interesting like Boston, NYC, SF, then the old buildings might be much more expensive, due to location and heritage.

I think Japan's zoning laws are great because in the US, generally you cannot walk to anything interesting (bar, coffeeshop, restaurant), because nowhere near your home is zoned for commercial, there are exceptions in the big cities obviously, but much of the population lives in non-walkable suburban layouts.

I sometimes wonder if the Europeans know how good they have it... So many beautiful walk-able cities and only a train ride away. I'm in Minnesota so there's basically nothing interesting for 1000 miles.