The 15 Most Common US House Styles (and How to Tell Them Off)

Whether we’re shopping for shoes or a new car, we’ve been trained to think not only about the usefulness of our stuff, but how each purchase matches our personal style. And that extends to the most fundamental asset: our homes. Most people have particular tastes when it comes to buying a home, and watching HGTV can be a dizzying experience to discover just how many types of homes there are in this country. Americans have always been keen importers of ideas, and our architecture reflects this desire to steal a good roofline or floor plan.

If you’ve ever wondered how real estate professionals can look at a home so confidently and know exactly what style it’s in, here’s a rundown of the main US home styles and how to identify them.

Ranch

The ranch-style house is one of the most popular and easily recognizable. The ranch house was designed in the 1930s but gained popularity after World War II as a way to mass-produce housing for a generation of Americans who returned from the war with low-interest loans.

Functions:

• Usually single storey
• low roof
• A little sprawl like the western ranches that inspired it
• front garage

salt shaker

Most Saltbox style houses are old; the style dates back to the 17th century ^. The houses were named after a common salt container in those days. These houses usually have two stories in the front and descend to one in the back, and they tend to have a fairly simple floor plan and a lot of old school charm.

Functions:

• square front
• A sharply sloping roof that transitions from two-story to one-story.
• Centered brick chimney

Cape Cod

If you’ve ever been to a beach town in the northeastern United States, you’ve seen the Cape Cod style home. These houses date back to the first European settlers in North America, and the style was dictated by the desire for survival : these houses were originally designed to shelter people during the harsh winters of the region.

Functions:

• Central chimneys
• small rooms
• low ceilings
• Steep roof with side gables
• Skylights

Also, the number of windows on the façade determines whether you are dealing with a half-mantle (two windows on one side of the door), with a three-quarter mantle (two windows on one side of the door, one on the other). , or full cape (two windows on each side of the door).

Shotgun

The term “shotgun house” is often explained by the idea that if you fire a shotgun through the front door, the bullet will travel unhindered to the back of the house. These narrow (usually no more than 12 feet wide ) wooden houses originated in the New Orleans area due to new fire regulations introduced in the 18th ^century , which required wooden houses to be narrow enough to leave space between them to reduce the spread of fire. .

Functions:

• single story
• One room wide
• Kitchen at the back of the house

colonials

“Colonial” is a general term for various house styles that go back to the days when the US was a bunch of squabbling colonies . The style is considered by some to include the Cape Cod and Saltbox houses, but these have become a separate house style in their own right. However, any reference to a “colonial” house can mean Georgian, Dutch Colonial, Spanish Colonial (distinguished by having a central courtyard), Colonial Revival, French Colonial, and several other variants.

Functions:

• rectangular shape
• Symmetrical façade with central door
• Front lobby with central front staircase
• Bedrooms are usually on the second floor
• Lack of exterior finishes.

Greek Revival

Does the house in question have so many columns that it seems impossible? It was probably built in the Greek Revival style. It was one of the first independent architectural movements in the United States , which sought to make the US a continuation of the democratic traditions of ancient Greece. And since we are Americans, we took it very literally.

Functions:

• columns? Yes please, usually maintaining a covered porch or portico
• Symmetrical façade, traditionally in white
• Low pitched roof with triangular gable
• Lots of decorations, including friezes, trim and other embellishments.

Victorian

“Victorian” is another general term for a group of house styles, but the term refers to the time period during which these houses were originally popular , not to their particular look. If the house you’re looking at reminds you of a doll’s house (or a classic haunted house), it’s probably Victorian. The two main styles of Victorian homes are defined by their simplicity: Italianate Victorians are simpler and less gaudy, Queen Anne Victorians are the opposite of plain and less gaudy.

Functions:

• Multiple stories
• Asymmetric layout and façade
• luxury decoration
• Italian houses tend to be more rectangular in shape with nearly flat roofs; The Queen Anne tends to have elaborate rooflines.
• Queen Anne usually has rounded porches and gingerbread decorations.
• Additional tower

Tudor

Technically, any Tudor-style house in the United States is a “Tudor Revival” house, as the house style originated in 16th- ^century England . The renaissance period here began in the late ^19th century, and you’ll find most of them in the northern part of the country – unsurprisingly for a house style designed in England, they’re perfect for the cold and harsh climate.

Functions:

• Decorative fachwerk (wooden frame partially open)
• high windows
• Steep pitched roofs with gables
• Patterned stone or stucco outside

Artisan

The craftsman-style house was a reaction to the gaudy Victorian houses and the rise of mass-produced housing. They were inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement that originated in England, which emphasized a love of jewelry and handicrafts. As a result, an artisan-style home has a fine “hand-made” feel to it, even if it wasn’t actually hand-made.

Functions:

• Low roof hanging over the porch
• conical columns
• Usually single storey
• Interiors with many handmade details

foursquare

Another simple reaction to the busy Victorian houses of the late ^19th century, the Foursquare (sometimes called the American Foursquare) is an efficient design that was often sold as a do-it-yourself kit and became very popular in developing suburbs. ^XX century. If the house you’re looking at is a cube with multiple skylights, it could be Foursquare.

Functions:

• cube shape
• Hipped roof (similar to a truncated pyramid with four sides), usually with dormer windows in the attic space.
• Usually two stories
• Overhanging cornices over the porch in full or half length

Two-level

Originally a ranch variant , the two-level house takes the ranch style, adds a second floor, and makes it a bit more compact so it can fit in a small lot. Basically, it’s a way to make a ranch-style home work in a more populous area.

Functions:

• Sunken, frontal garage
• low pitched roof
• Separate entrance that leads to the common area, down to the basement and up to the bedrooms.

Cottage

Cottage-style houses resemble American Foursquare houses, but have only one floor. This style of house originated in Europe and came to the US from England in the 19th century ^. They tend to be quite small (real estate professionals will use the code word “cosy”) and are usually quite unique in their visual style.

Functions:

• steep gabled roofs
• Central dormer window, usually above the front door
• Front or circular veranda
• Asymmetrical layout

Mediterranean Sea

Sometimes referred to as “Spanish Style”, these microvillas are actually a mixture of Spanish and Italian architectural styles that became popular in the warmer areas of the US in the 1920s . If the house you’re looking at could be a small villa in Tuscany or the home of a silent movie star, you’re probably in a Mediterranean style home.

Functions:

• Terracotta roof
• Exterior plaster
• Iron and other metal parts
• Arched windows and doors
• Open floor plans with a focus on living inside and out
• high ceilings

Pueblo Revival

Inspired by ancient houses built by the Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest and heavily influenced by Spanish architecture, these houses are popular in places like Arizona and New Mexico and often look like they were sculpted straight out of the ground.

Functions:

• Adobe (or cement or adobe-like plaster) outside
• Rounded edges
• Exposed and protruding timber beams
• Heavy, large front doors
• flat roofs
• Usually has a courtyard

federal

Built in ^{the 17th} century, Federal style houses ( sometimes called Adam style after the Adam brothers who popularized it with their Italianate designs) are mostly found on the East Coast of the United States , as they have fallen out of fashion. by then the country had expanded westward.

Functions:

• Square or rectangular shape
• symmetrical façade
• Semi-circular window above the front door
• Multi-storey
• Simple clapboard or brick exterior
• hipped roof

Of course, there are endless variations on these basic house styles, unusual styles that you don’t often see, and houses that have been renovated and modified until they no longer fit a particular style. But now at least you can look at the house and talk confidently about what kind of house you see.