Single-family homes
Single-family/detached homes
These homes do not share any common walls or roof with other homes. This is the classic American house from the days of the frontier and prairie, and the most sought-after style (and the most expensive) in most markets. Most single family homes are not governed by any homeowners association, so you can feel free to paint the shutters in polka-dots and suffer nothing more than the scorn of your neighbors.
Duplex/semi-detached homes
A duplex is basically two separate houses that share one common wall and roof. Owners will each maintain their property up to the point of the common line. As you might imagine, owning a duplex requires a more cozy relationship with your neighbor than is required in a single-family home.
Townhouses and rowhouses
The terms townhouse (or townhome) and rowhouse are often used interchangeably. There are however, a few commonly accepted differences. Both are a series of homes which share a common wall but are on individually owned lots. Cities like Washington, D.C. (home to HotPads) and Baltimore are home to classic rowhouses, which have no common areas and no requirement of a homeowners association membership. New end-on-end home developments are typically called townhouses, and often include common areas like driveways, pools, landscaping and other features that require owners to pay fees to maintain.
Condominiums (Condos)
Condos are essentially apartments that you own instead of rent. You have title to a specific unit, and access to many shared common areas that may include hallways, elevators, recreation facilities, storage rooms and more. Condo residents will pay a monthly or quarterly fee to an association to cover the insurance and maintenance of the common areas. It is critical that a prospective home buyer know what the monthly or quarterly condo fee is, as they are often exorbitant and can make an otherwise affordable place a budget-buster.
Co-ops
Co-ops (short for cooperatives) are similar to condos in that they are typically units in a building, but the ownership structure is quite different. In a co-op, you don't own a unit outright. You are a shareholder in a corporation that owns the building and you carry a leasehold interest in your unit.
Mobile Homes
Mobile homes are a type of manufactured home, built in a factory and transported to the home site. Mobile homes are often called trailers for their ability to be moved. Most mobile homes are fixed semi-permanently to one site, either on a privately owned lot or a site where space for the trailer is leased.
The two common types are known as single-wides and double-wides. Single wide homes are sixteen feet or less in width while double-wides are twenty feet or more wide and have to be towed to each location in two separate units which are then joined together.