Having been around enough houses (in the US) to have a balanced opinion - I personally prefer older houses but

- older houses tend to be a lot more inefficient in their use of square footage

- the rooms inside tend to be a lot less open, and one man's "fun/quirky layout" is another man's "why do I have to go down a step then immediately go up a step to cross a hallway"

- and, I begrudgingly admit (as I don't like how they wreck house aesthetics) people really like big, attached garages

My overall suspicion is that when a lot of people say they like old houses, what they really mean is that they like buildings that look beautiful on the outside and, to a lesser extent, have a sense of being rooted in some kind of context.