hi, folks.
what is the difference between single family home and town house?
When I do some research for housing, and the websites always ask me
what type of house I want to search,like single family home, town
house, house. What is the difference?
Thanks.

In article .com, "Nick" wrote:
hi, folks.
what is the difference between single family home and town house?
When I do some research for housing, and the websites always ask me
what type of house I want to search,like single family home, town
house, house. What is the difference?

www.google.com

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

(Nick) wrote in
oups.com:

what is the difference between single family home and town house?


A "town house" would mean attached housing, maybe just a duplex,
maybe a full-blown row house. The alternative would be a house
sitting on its own lot.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

Town houses are attached. Single family home is just that as opposed
to 2 or threefamily homes
Nick wrote:
hi, folks.
what is the difference between single family home and town house?
When I do some research for housing, and the websites always ask me
what type of house I want to search,like single family home, town
house, house. What is the difference?
Thanks.

"Nick" wrote in message
oups.com...

what is the difference between single family home and town house?
When I do some research for housing, and the websites always ask me
what type of house I want to search,like single family home, town
house, house. What is the difference?

Town house is American realtor language
for the British terrace house or row house.
It is a single family house attached to both
neighbours (except for the unit at each end
of the row, which qualifies as semi-detached.)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Nick wrote:
hi, folks.
what is the difference between single family home and town house?
When I do some research for housing, and the websites always ask me
what type of house I want to search,like single family home, town
house, house. What is the difference?
Thanks.

A townhouse is classified by lenders as a single family attached
dwelling. It shares a wall - called a party wall - with another
dwelling on one or both sides. They can also be called a rowhouse.

The form of ownership varies. In most cases you own the lot under the
townhouse. There may also be a homeowners association. In those
cases, if membership in the association is mandatory, its considered a
planned unit development or PUD.

Some townhouses are owned as condominiums. That means you own a unit
as defined in the condo documents - typically the inside walls and
airspace - and a percentage of the common elements. In a
townshouse/condo form of ownership you typically have exclusive rights
to the land in front and back of the unit.

So when you are defining your search, you're deciding whether to look
at attached dwellings or not. Townhouses are always attached.

Hope that helps. Good luck on your search.

In "Don Phillipson"
wrote:

"Nick" wrote in message
oups.com...

what is the difference between single family home and town house?
When I do some research for housing, and the websites always ask me
what type of house I want to search,like single family home, town
house, house. What is the difference?

Town house is American realtor language
for the British terrace house or row house.

Row houses are common in the US too; Baltimore (where I grew up) is (or
used to be) famous for them. Unfortunately, the term "row house" took on
a connotation of "slum housing" a while back. Again, Baltimore can be
used as an example for that too.

I was somewhat shocked when a brand new condominium project out here in
St. Paul called itself "The Rowhouses on Snelling" [Snelling Ave., a
major thoroughfare, named after Josiah Snelling, a military officer
particularly responsible for the "pacification" of the region],
apparently counting on the fact that midwesterners weren't too familiar
with the negative image.

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN

In article ,
says...
(Nick) wrote in
oups.com:

what is the difference between single family home and town house?


A "town house" would mean attached housing, maybe just a duplex,
maybe a full-blown row house. The alternative would be a house
sitting on its own lot.

Minor nit -- detached homes don't always sit on their own lot, though
that's still the most common situation.

Many developers have found that they can fit more homes on an acre by
avoiding lot-line setbacks -- the houses are privately owned, but the
land is owned in common by a homeowners association. No lot line
between houses, so no lot-line setback requirements, only the minimum
building separation required by local codes, which is often
substantially smaller than a lot-line setback -- say ten feet between
detached houses, or five feet to the fence-line, vs. ten or even fifteen
feet to a lot line.

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Braze your own bicycle frames. See
http://www.phred.org/~josh/build/build.html

"Don Phillipson" ) writes:
Town house is American realtor language
for the British terrace house or row house.
It is a single family house attached to both
neighbours (except for the unit at each end
of the row, which qualifies as semi-detached.)

I've always felt that calling the end unit in row housing 'semi-detached'
is incorrect.

We have quite a few true semi-detached homes here in Ottawa. Calling an
end unit row house 'semi-detached' is misleading. My opinion only.

Bert Hyman wrote:
In "Don Phillipson"
wrote:


"Nick" wrote in message
groups.com...


what is the difference between single family home and town house?
When I do some research for housing, and the websites always ask me
what type of house I want to search,like single family home, town
house, house. What is the difference?

Town house is American realtor language
for the British terrace house or row house.


Row houses are common in the US too; Baltimore (where I grew up) is (or
used to be) famous for them. Unfortunately, the term "row house" took on
a connotation of "slum housing" a while back. Again, Baltimore can be
used as an example for that too.

I was somewhat shocked when a brand new condominium project out here in
St. Paul called itself "The Rowhouses on Snelling" [Snelling Ave., a
major thoroughfare, named after Josiah Snelling, a military officer
particularly responsible for the "pacification" of the region],
apparently counting on the fact that midwesterners weren't too familiar
with the negative image.


The general negative image may be limited to Baltimore? Not all cities
give rowhouses the "slum housing" connotation - think of Elfreth's Alley
the "oldest still residential street" or Rittenhouse Square in
Philadelphia, or some of the residential streets in downtown Annapolis,
or the brownstones (essentially rowhouses) in Brooklyn. Sure, all these
places have run-down neighborhoods with rowhouses but they also have
upscale neighborhoods with elegant rowhouses.

"Nick" writes:

hi, folks.
what is the difference between single family home and town house?
When I do some research for housing, and the websites always ask me
what type of house I want to search,like single family home, town
house, house. What is the difference?

A single family, detached home is what most folks thing of as a house.

A townhouse is a form of attached housing, which means you're gonna
have neighbors whose townhomes are part of the same structure. Common
wall, common roof, etc, and typically connotes multiple levels within
it, and typically is also a condominium, with a condominium
association collcting fees to cover the expense of maintaining the
exterior structure of the unit.

A "condo" is a vague term, for what it's worth. It can only be
trusted to mean that there's some sort of condo association fee to pay
for for shared upkeep. In chicago, a condo conotes an apartment
style single floor unit that you canpurchase a deed too, while
technically most townhomes around here are also technically condos.

At least that's the only explanation I've heard that made sense. :-)

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

In article , says...

A "condo" is a vague term, for what it's worth. It can only be
trusted to mean that there's some sort of condo association fee to pay
for for shared upkeep. In chicago, a condo conotes an apartment
style single floor unit that you canpurchase a deed too, while
technically most townhomes around here are also technically condos.

At least that's the only explanation I've heard that made sense. :-)

Technically, "condominium" describes the form of ownership, not the type
of building. It means you own your particular unit, plus an undivided
interest in whatever you and all the other unit owners hold in common
through the association.

There are apartment-style condos, townhouse condos, detached home
condos, even condominium mobile home parks.

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Braze your own bicycle frames. See
http://www.phred.org/~josh/build/build.html

Joshua Putnam writes:

In article , says...

A "condo" is a vague term, for what it's worth. It can only be
trusted to mean that there's some sort of condo association fee to pay
for for shared upkeep. In chicago, a condo conotes an apartment
style single floor unit that you canpurchase a deed too, while
technically most townhomes around here are also technically condos.

At least that's the only explanation I've heard that made sense. :-)

Technically, "condominium" describes the form of ownership, not the type
of building. It means you own your particular unit, plus an undivided
interest in whatever you and all the other unit owners hold in common
through the association.

There are apartment-style condos, townhouse condos, detached home
condos, even condominium mobile home parks.

Much better said than I rattled off. Thanks Joshua!

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

In article ,
Bert Hyman wrote:

(Nick) wrote in
oups.com:

what is the difference between single family home and town house?


A "town house" would mean attached housing, maybe just a duplex,
maybe a full-blown row house. The alternative would be a house
sitting on its own lot.

Not always. Here in the twin cities, there are a large number
of "detached townhome" communities. These are free standing
buildings with one unit per building, but the land is owned
in common, and the association takes care of outside maintenance.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

(John A. Weeks III) wrote in
:

In article ,
Bert Hyman wrote:

(Nick) wrote in
oups.com:

what is the difference between single family home and town
house?


A "town house" would mean attached housing, maybe just a duplex,
maybe a full-blown row house. The alternative would be a house
sitting on its own lot.

Not always. Here in the twin cities, there are a large number
of "detached townhome" communities. These are free standing
buildings with one unit per building, but the land is owned
in common, and the association takes care of outside maintenance.

Just another example of language drift rendering a perfectly useful
term like "town house" meaningless.

If you think about what a "town house" was originally, you'll see
that even using the term for row houses or duplexes built in the
suburbs is silly.

But, that's the way language works.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |