(From constructorandbuilder.com and other sources.)

Single-Family Dwellings

Single-Family Homes

Approximately 70% of Americans live in single-family homes. Although this figure is probably not as high in many other countries, the single-family home is a highly desirable type of home.

It is a house that is not attached to any other house. It stands on its own property and is completely separate from other houses. Most detached single-family homes are found in the suburbs of North America. This type of house exploded after World War II, when there was a massive migration to the suburbs. Before World War II, only 13% of people lived in suburbs. In 2010, half of the US population lives in the suburbs.

In 2010, most people are looking to live in single-family homes, although with the baby boomer generation downsizing, the demand for alternatives to single-family homes is increasing (i.e., condos, townhomes and flats).

Barndominiums

A barndominium is a barn that has been partially or fully converted into living space.

Tiny Homes

A tiny home is a small house that can be fixed or mobile and ranges in size from 100 to 400 square feet. They are exceptionally efficient in terms of design and layout. They are gaining in popularity as people downsize and/or seek to live mortgage-free. They cost between $10,000 and $100,000, depending on whether you build them or they are built for you, and on the materials used.

Container Homes

A recent development in house construction and design is the use of existing containers as the main structure of the house. Smaller houses use one container while larger houses use several. You can configure them in different ways. There are companies that specialize in designing and creating container houses.

Accessory Dwelling

Attached Accessory Dwelling Units (Secondary Suites)

An executive suite is a separate unit built into a single-family home. It is often, but not always, located in the basement. It is, however, part of the structure of the single-family home and is not a separate structure. A separate structure available for rental and/or guests is a different terminology, such as a carriage house or lane house.

Attached Accessory Dwelling Units includes attached suites, interior upper (attic) suites, interior lower (basement) suites, above attached garage suites, and attached garage conversion suites.

Detached Accessory Dwelling Units (Secondary Houses)

Carriage houses and coach houses were structures on a property built to house horse-drawn carriages. Many have since been converted into separate living units that are rented out or reserved for guests.

Although we no longer need such structures to house carriages, many new builds have built them on the property to generate additional income for the owner and/or for guest accommodation. As is often the case, the term carriage house is still used, even though it was never used as a structure of this type in the past.

Other types of Accessory Dwelling Units include detached garage conversion houses, above attached garage houses, guest houses, pool houses, garden houses, etc.

Mobile Dwellings

Mobile Homes

A mobile home is a mobile structure that can be towed, but is not designed to be towed frequently like a recreational vehicle. Mobile homes are built in a factory, towed to the site and remain in place. They are inexpensive. There are mobile home parks where the mobile home is owned by a person, but the person rents the land or site. In other cases, people live in mobile homes on property they own.

Any vehicle or portable structure designed for long term occupancy, containing sleeping accommodations, a flush toilet, a bathtub or shower, kitchen facilities, and plumbing and electrical connections providing for attachment to outside systems; designed to be transported after fabrication on its own wheels, flatbed truck, or other trailer or detachable wheels; which, when arriving at the site where it is to be occupied as a complete dwelling unit, including major appliances, and ready for occupancy except for minor and incidental unpacking and assembly operation, is located on foundation supports, and is connected to external utilities and electrical system. Mobile Home does not include Modular Homes or Manufactured Homes, Type A.

Manufactured Homes

A dwelling unit which is fabricated in one or more modules at a location other than the home site, by assembly-line type production techniques or by other construction methods unique to an off-site manufacturing process and which bears a seal certifying that it was built in compliance with the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Code.

Modular Homes

A dwelling unit, designed and built in a factory, for installation or assembly at the building site, and which bears a seal certifying that it was built in compliance with I.C. 16-41-27-1 et seq.

Yurt

There was a time when my wife and I were seriously considering buying a plot of land and putting up a yurt. We would have no mortgage and a comfortable home.

The yurt is the main living structure used by the Mongols in Mongolia. They are a nomadic people. As yurts can be packed and moved easily, it is an ideal type of housing for them.

A yurt is round. The walls and roof are made of waterproof fabric. While traditional yurts are rather rustic, you can have custom yurts built with almost all the amenities of an ordinary house. While some people in North America live in them all year round, others use them as a second home.

They range in size from about 12 feet in diameter (115 square feet) to over 30 feet in diameter (706 square feet). They are relatively cheap to build.

Multi-Family Dwellings

A multi-family house is a house with two or more dwelling units. It is a generic term for a single-family home with an in-law suite, an apartment building, a townhome complex, a condominium, etc.

Condominium

A condominium is one of several units in a building or series of buildings on a piece of land. Each owner has title to their unit. The building is governed by an elected body (HOA in the US / Strata Council in Canada) which makes decisions on behalf of all unit owners and owns the common areas and land. It makes decisions about maintenance, grounds, regulations, etc.

Apartment

An apartment is a group of housing units in a building, all owned by one entity. In other words, all units are owned by one entity. The units are then rented to tenants. This is the main difference between a condominium and an apartment. In the case of a condominium, individual entities (i.e., a person or corporation) own the units, whereas in the case of an apartment, all the units in the building are owned by a single entity.

Townhome

A townhome is like a row house sharing one or two walls. They usually have two or three floors. Some go even higher. They differ from condos in that the owners of a townhome own both the interior and exterior of the unit and are therefore financially responsible for maintaining the exteriors. In the case of condos, the exterior of the building is maintained by the regulatory body (HOA or Strata Council).

A townhome is more like a single-family home, except that it is attached to another unit on one or both sides.

Co-op

A co-op has the physical appearance and function of a condominium and an apartment, but the financial and legal arrangement is different. In a co-op, each purchasing entity does not own a particular unit, but a percentage of the building. The owners are, in a sense, shareholders in the entire property and technically lease their unit to the co-op.

What is the advantage of a co-op over a condominium? Basically, the co-op association (the members of the co-op) can refuse to allow a potential buyer to purchase in the building. That said, the co-op association can only reject a buyer for financial reasons or because he or she does not want to follow the rules set by the association. An HOA/condo strata cannot reject a potential buyer as long as they follow the rules (e.g. age restrictions).