List of house types

Residential dwellings can be built in a large variety of configurations. A basic division is between the single-family home and the flat/apartment, but there are also many subdivisions, listed below.

Houses

• Sears House: Sears houses were owner-built "kit" houses sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co. through its catalog division from 1906 -1940.
• Brownstone: see Rowhouse
• Colonial house: a traditional style house
• Cottage: Usually refers to a small country dwelling, but weavers' cottages are three-storied townhouses with the top floor reserved for the working quarters.
• Detached (Free Standing): Any house that is completely separated from its neighbours.
  • Bungalow: Single story house (not including optional basement)
  • Backsplit: Multilevel house that appears as a bungalow from the front elevation
  • Frontsplit: Multilevel house that appears as a two story house in front and a bungalow in the back. It is the opposite of a backsplit and is a rare configuration.
  • Sidesplit: Multilevel house where the different levels are visible from the front elevation
  • Link-detached: Adjacent detached properties which do not have a party wall, but which are linked by the garage(s) and so forming a single frontage.
  • prefab A house where the main structure is prefabricated (common after the second world war).
  • Two-story, three-story
  • Ranch: Single story house, usually with garage and basement.
• Farmhouse: Builing serving as the main residence on a farm.
• Linked: Rowhouse or semi-detached house that is linked only at the foundation. Above ground, they appear as detached houses. Linking the foundations reduces cost.
• Faux Chateau: (1980s - 90s) Inflated suburban house with non-contextual French Provencal references.
• Mansion: Very large/expensive house
• McMansion (1980s - 90s) Inflated suburban house with classicizing references.
• Manufactured Home
• Mews property: A Mews is an urban stable-block that has been converted into residential properties. The houses are converted into ground floor garages with a small flat above which used to house the ostler.
• Patio Home
• Rowhouse: (USA) also called "townhouse"; also called "terraced home": 3 or more houses in a row sharing a "party" wall with its adjacent neighbour. In New York, "Brownstones" are rowhouses. Rowhouses are typically multiple stories. If land is expensive enough to sacrifice the privacy of detached homes, it also justifies multiple stories.
• Split-level house: A style popular in the 50's and 60's.
• Semi-detached: a 2 unit rowhouse, often called a "duplex" in the USA.
• Terraced House: Since the late 18th century is a style of housing where identical individual houses are conjoined into rows - a line of houses which abut directly on to each other built with shared party walls between dwellings whose uniform fronts and uniform height created an ensemble that was more stylish than a "rowhouse"
  • Back-to-back: Terraced houses which also adjoin a second terrace to the rear. They were a common form of housing for workers during the Industrial Revolution in England.
• Treehouse
• Townhouse: also called rowhouse (US). In the UK, a townhouse is a house which is often three stories tall with a garage on the ground floor: it is usually terraced.
  • Stacked townhouse: Units are stacked on each other; units may be multilevel; all units have direct access from the outside
• Shack: A small, usually rundown, wooden building.

Flats / Apartments

• Apartment building: a multi-unit dwelling made up of several (generally four or more) apartments.
• Apartment tower, Block of flats or Tower block: a high-rise apartment building
• Condominium: Separate residences with some common areas (see townhouse).
• Duplex: Two separate residences, usually side-by-side, but sometimes on two different floors. The former often looks like two houses put together, sharing a wall (see semi-detached); the latter usually appears as a townhouse, but with two different entrances.
• Garden Apartment: a building style usually characterized by two story, semi-detached buildings, each floor being a separate apartment.
• Maisonette: an apartment / flat on two levels with internal stairs, or which has its own entrance at street level.
• Penthouse: Refers to the top floor of multi-story building
• Tenement a multi-unit dwelling made up of several (generally four or more) apartments (i.e. an apartment building). In the United States the connotation implies a run-down or poorly-cared-for building.
• Loft or Warehouse conversion: Trendy flats inhabited by bourgeois bohemian after gentrification of an industrial area

See also

• House
• Cohousing
• Real estate
• List of lodging types

Garage-Apartment: An apartment over a garage; if the garage is attached, the apartment will have a separate entrance from the main house. Garalow: a portmateau word garage+bungalow; similar to a garage-apartment, but with the apartment and garage at the same level. Mother-in-Law Apartment: Small apartment either at the back or on an upper level of the main house, usually with a separate enterance.