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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchSears stopped selling its mail-order houses in 1940, when the Modern Homes program ended with its last house sale. The program had sold house designs and building materials since 1908, but Sears narrowed it through the 1930s after its mortgage business suffered major losses during the Great Depression. The houses already built became private homes, and many still stand, although no official count of them exists. Sears’ general merchandise catalog ended on a different timeline: the company announced the closure of that catalog division in 1993, years after the house program was over.
What Sears was actually selling
A Sears Modern Home was not a finished house delivered to a lot. Buyers chose a design from the catalog, which could be modified to fit a budget or personal taste, and received the plans and building materials. They still had to arrange and pay for the site, the foundation, and construction labor. The McHenry County Historical Society notes that catalog prices generally covered the building materials, while the completed project, including land, foundation, and labor, could cost about twice the catalog price. That is the society’s general estimate, not a measured cost for any particular house.
The business had roots before the house program. According to the Sears Modern Homes archive, Sears began selling building materials through its catalogs in 1895. The specialty Modern Homes catalog and house program followed in 1908, and its first catalog offered designs and construction plans.
Sears marketed the idea of ownership as much as the product. Its 1927 Honor Bilt catalog declared: “A HOME OF YOUR OWN is an absolute necessity.” That line is corporate sales copy, not an independent finding about what homeownership delivered to buyers.
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How the program unfolded
| Date | What happened | Source as reported |
|---|---|---|
| 1895 | Sears begins selling building materials through its catalogs | Sears Modern Homes archive |
| 1908 | Modern Homes specialty catalog and house program launch; designs and construction plans offered | Teaching American History; Sears Modern Homes archive |
| 1911 | Sears begins offering loans to buyers; financing later expands to cover materials and labor | Sears Modern Homes archive |
| 1929 | Reported sales peak of more than $12 million, of which $5.6 million was mortgage loans | Sears Modern Homes archive (the archive’s reported historical totals) |
| 1934 | About $11 million in mortgages liquidated | Sears Modern Homes archive |
| By 1935 | Sears is selling houses without lots or financing | Sears Modern Homes archive |
| 1940 | Last Modern Home sold; the house program ends | Sears Modern Homes archive; Teaching American History |
Why the house program ended
The most defensible explanation in the available sources is that the Depression put heavy pressure on a business that had extended mortgages to its own customers. The Sears Modern Homes archive reports large mortgage exposure in 1929 and the liquidation of about $11 million in mortgages in 1934. By 1935, according to the same archive, Sears had stopped offering financing and was selling houses without lots or loans. The program still ran for five more years, until the last house sale in 1940.
Those are the pressures the sources support. They do not establish a single exclusive cause, and it would be an overstatement to describe the mortgage losses as the only reason the program ended.
The general catalog ended separately
The familiar Sears merchandise catalog and Wish Book belonged to a much larger retail operation, and it ran on its own timeline. HISTORY reports that Sears began its general mail-order catalog in 1893, announced the closure of the catalog division in 1993, put its Christmas catalog online at Wishbook.com in 1998, and launched Sears.com in 1999. The later online developments were part of Sears’ broader retailing, not a continuation of the Modern Homes construction program.
The sources reviewed here do not establish one definitive reason for the 1993 closure, so any single explanation should be treated as unverified.
What became of the houses
When the house program stopped, the houses it had sold did not disappear. They became ordinary private homes, and many have been remodeled, enlarged, or altered over the decades. The Sears Modern Homes archive says thousands survive in varying condition. It also states plainly that no official tally of surviving Sears mail-order houses exists, so any survivor number should be read as an estimate, not a census.
How to tell whether a house is a Sears house
Resemblance to a catalog illustration is only a starting point. Exterior similarity by itself is weak evidence, because many houses of the period shared common styles. The McHenry County Historical Society says that interior evidence, correspondence, and mortgage records can help conclusively identify a mail-order house. A practical sequence looks like this:
- Compare the house with plans and illustrations from Sears Modern Homes catalogs, noting any matching floor plan rather than only the facade.
- Look for interior features consistent with the catalog design, such as room layout and built-in details.
- Search for documents: original correspondence with Sears, building or purchase records, and mortgage records tied to the property.
- Check whether the house was sold through Aladdin, which is the one company the society says preserved its sales records. For houses from other companies, documentary confirmation can be much harder to obtain.
- Treat a family story as a lead to verify, not as proof of origin.
For background on original designs, the society names Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company as a research resource, and an Illinois Historic American Buildings Survey report cites it. Reprints of Sears’ 1926 house catalog are another way to examine the original plans. These are references, not evidence that any specific house is a Sears house.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the house counts differ
Published totals for the Modern Homes program do not measure the same thing, so they should not be merged into one number.
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| Figure | What it measures | Who reports it and the qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Nearly 75,000 kits sold, 1908–1940 | Kits sold | Teaching American History; publication date not stated on the page |
| More than 70,000 structures completed | Structures built using Sears kits and designs | Illinois Historic American Buildings Survey report; wording differs from the kit count |
| More than $12 million in sales, 1929 | Modern Homes sales in one year, including $5.6 million in mortgage loans | Sears Modern Homes archive; reported historical totals for 1929 |
| About $11 million in mortgages liquidated, 1934 | Mortgage liquidation in one year | Sears Modern Homes archive; reported for 1934 |
| Surviving houses | Not stated as a number | Sears Modern Homes archive, accessed in 2026, says no official tally exists |
When you cite these figures, keep the attribution with each one. A kit count and a completed-structure count can both be accurate and still describe different things.
Frequently asked questions in short
Readers searching this topic often ask whether the houses are still being sold. They are not. The Modern Homes program ended in 1940, and the catalog division’s 1993 closure concerned the general merchandise business, not the house kits.
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