Single-family detached home

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A single-family home in Denmark Nordisches Einfamilienhaus.jpg
A single-family home in Denmark

A single-family detached home, also called a single-detached dwelling,single-family residence (SFR) or separate house is a free-standing residential building. It is defined in opposition to a multi-family residential dwelling.

Contents

Definitions

A single detached dwelling contains only one dwelling unit and is completely separated by open space on all sides from any other structure, except its own garage or shed.

Statistics Canada [1]

A small detached house surrounded by a green yard in Haapamaki, Keuruu, Finland Talo Haapamaella 1.JPG
A small detached house surrounded by a green yard in Haapamäki, Keuruu, Finland

The definition of this type of house may vary between legal jurisdictions or statistical agencies. The definition, however, generally includes two elements:

Most single-family homes are built on lots larger than the structure itself, adding an area surrounding the house, which is commonly called a yard in North American English or a garden in British English. Garages can also be found on many lots. Houses with an attached front entry garage closer to the street than any other part of the house are often derisively called a snout house.

Regional terminologies

Typical suburban single-family house in Poland 2017 Dom nr 24a w Zablociu 1.jpg
Typical suburban single-family house in Poland
Single-family houses in Montreal Mtlvdbhomes.jpg
Single-family houses in Montreal
Typical single-family home in Northern Germany Newly developed single-family home in northern Germany.jpg
Typical single-family home in Northern Germany
Typical Finnish post-World War II single-family houses in Jyvaskyla Wooden terraced house, Saynatsalo.jpg
Typical Finnish post-World War II single-family houses in Jyväskylä

Terms corresponding to a single-family detached home in common use are single-family home (in the US and Canada), single-detached dwelling (in Canada), detached house (in the United Kingdom and Canada), and separate house (in New Zealand).[ citation needed ]

In the United Kingdom, the term single-family home is almost unknown, except through Internet exposure to US media. Whereas in the US, housing is commonly divided into "single-family homes", "multi-family dwellings", "condo/townhouse", etc., the primary division of residential property in British terminology is between "houses" (including "detached", "semi-detached", and "terraced" houses and bungalows) and "flats" (i.e., "apartments" or "condominiums" in American English).[ citation needed ]

History and distribution

The Saitta House, Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, New York, built in 1899, is a single-family detached home. Saitta House Dyker Heights.JPG
The Saitta House, Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, New York, built in 1899, is a single-family detached home.

In pre-industrial societies, most people lived in multi-family dwellings for most of their lives. A child lived with their parents from birth until marriage and then generally moved in with the parents of the man (patrilocal) or the woman (matrilocal) so that the grandparents could help raise the young children and so the middle generation could care for their aging parents. This type of arrangement also saved some of the effort and materials used for construction and, in colder climates, heating. If people had to move to a new place or were wealthy enough, they could build or buy a home for their own family, but this was not the norm.

The idea of a nuclear family living separately from their relatives as the norm is a relatively recent development related to rising living standards in North America and Europe during the early modern and modern eras. In the New World, where land was plentiful, settlement patterns were quite different from the close-knit villages of Europe, meaning many more people lived in large farms separated from their neighbors. This has produced a cultural preference in settler societies for privacy and space. A countervailing trend has been industrialization and urbanization, which has seen more people worldwide move into multi-story apartment blocks. In the New World, this type of densification was halted and reversed following the Second World War when increased automobile ownership and cheaper building and heating costs produced suburbanization instead.

Single-family homes are now common in rural and suburban and even some urban areas across the New World and Europe, as well as wealthier enclaves within the Third World. They are most common in low-density, high-income regions. For example, in Canada, according to the 2006 census, 55.3% of the population lived in single-detached houses, but this varied substantially by region. In the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada's second-most populous municipality, only 7.5% of the population lived in single-detached homes; in contrast, in the city of Calgary, the third-most populous, 57.8% did. [3] Note that this includes the "city limits" populations only, not the wider region. Culturally, single-family houses are associated with suburbanization in many parts of the world. Owning a home with a yard and a "white picket fence" is seen as a key component of the "American dream" (which also exists with variations in other parts of the world). [4]

In the 21st century, a lack of affordable housing, the climate change impacts of urban sprawl and car dependency, and concerns about racial inequality have increasingly led cities to abandon single-family housing and single-family zoning in favor of higher-density zones. [4] [5]

Separating types of homes

House types include:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House</span> Building comprising a single dwelling

A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. Houses use a range of different roofing systems to keep precipitation such as rain from getting into the dwelling space. Houses generally have doors or locks to secure the dwelling space and protect its inhabitants and contents from burglars or other trespassers. Most conventional modern houses in Western cultures will contain one or more bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen or cooking area, and a living room. A house may have a separate dining room, or the eating area may be integrated into the kitchen or another room. Some large houses in North America have a recreation room. In traditional agriculture-oriented societies, domestic animals such as chickens or larger livestock may share part of the house with humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apartment</span> Self-contained housing unit occupying part of a building

An apartment, flat, or unit is a self-contained housing unit that occupies part of a building, generally on a single storey. There are many names for these overall buildings. The housing tenure of apartments also varies considerably, from large-scale public housing, to owner occupancy within what is legally a condominium, to tenants renting from a private landlord.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Housing estate</span> Group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development

A housing estate is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bungalow</span> House, primarily of a single story

A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is single-story, and may be surrounded by wide verandas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Townhouse</span> Individual urban house in a terrace or row

A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence of someone whose main or largest residence was a country house.

A semi-detached house is a single family duplex dwelling house that shares one common wall with the next house. The name distinguishes this style of house from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced houses, with a shared wall on both sides. Often, semi-detached houses are built in pairs in which each house's layout is a mirror image of the other's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Condominium</span> Form of ownership of real property

A condominium is an ownership regime in which a building is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual owners. These individual units are surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned and managed by the owners of the units. The term can be applied to the building or complex itself, and is sometimes applied to individual units. The term "condominium" is mostly used in the US and Canada, but similar arrangements are used in many other countries under different names.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terraced house</span> Form of medium-density housing

A terrace, terraced house (UK), or townhouse (US) is a kind of medium-density housing that first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row houses or row homes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Household</span> Group sharing accommodation and meals

A household consists of one or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is important to economics and inheritance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cottage</span> Dwelling type

A cottage, during England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide some form of service to the manorial lord. However, in time cottage just became the general term for a small house. In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cosy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location and not necessarily in England. The cottage orné, often quite large and grand residences built by the nobility, dates back to a movement of "rustic" stylised cottages of the late 18th and early 19th century during the Romantic movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Housing in Japan</span> Overview of housing in Japan

Housing in Japan includes modern and traditional styles. Two patterns of residences are predominant in contemporary Japan: the single-family detached house and the multiple-unit building, either owned by an individual or corporation and rented as apartments to tenants, or owned by occupants. Additional kinds of housing, especially for unmarried people, include boarding houses, dormitories, and barracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cottage flat</span> Housing style in the United Kingdom

Cottage flats, also known as four-in-a-block flats, are a style of housing common in Scotland, where there are single floor dwellings at ground level, and similar dwellings on the floor above. All have doors directly to the outside of the building, rather than into a 'close', or common staircase, although some do retain a shared entrance. The name 'cottage flats' is confusing as before the mid-1920s cottage housing referred to a single house, normally semi-detached, which contained living accommodation downstairs and bedrooms above. These were phased out by most urban local authorities as wasteful of space and economy after central government subsidies were reduced in the 1924 Housing Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multifamily residential</span> Type of housing development that emphasizes density and proximity of many neighbors

Multifamily residential is a classification of housing where multiple separate housing units for residential inhabitants are contained within one building or several buildings within one complex. Units can be next to each other, or stacked on top of each other. Common forms include apartment building and condominium, where typically the units are owned individually rather than leased from a single building owner. Many intentional communities incorporate multifamily residences, such as in cohousing projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secondary suite</span> Dwelling on a property separated from the main home

Secondary suites are self-contained apartments, cottages, or small residential units, that are located on a property that has a separate main, single-family home, duplex, or other residential unit. In some cases, the ADU or in-law is attached to the principal dwelling or is an entirely separate unit, located above a garage, across a carport, or in the backyard on the same property. Reasons for wanting to add a secondary suite to a property may be to receive additional income, provide social and personal support to a family member, or obtain greater security.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Housing unit</span> Space used as a home

A housing unit, or dwelling unit, is a structure or the part of a structure or the space that is used as a home, residence, or sleeping place by one person or more people who maintain a common household.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carriage house</span> Outbuildings separate from the living quarters

A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is a term used in North America to describe an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and their related tack. Carriage houses were often two stories, with related staff quarters above.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bay-and-gable</span>

The bay-and-gable is a distinct residential architectural style that is ubiquitous in the older portions of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The most prominent feature of the style is a large bay window that usually covers more than half the front façade of the home, surmounted by a gable roof. The bay window typically extends from the ground level towards the roof, although a variant of the housing form exists where the bay window fronts only the first level; known as a half-bay-and-gable. The housing form may be built as a stand-alone structure, although it is more often built as a semi-detached, or as terraced houses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Residential architecture in Poland</span> Overview of Polish residential architecture

Residential buildings in Poland are fundamentally divided into two main categories: single-family buildings (houses), and multi-family buildings. The former are meant to house only a small number of people, either one or a few families, while the latter are built with larger amounts of people living in their own separate areas of the same building in mind. There are also a few sub-categories, like multi-family houses, which can house multiple families, but don't have separate flats inside, and don't usually have separate entrances to the building. According to a 2010 survey: 41% of Poles live in single-family detached houses, 40% live in multi-family blocks of flats, 9% live in multi-family tenements, 7% live in multi-family houses, 3% live in single-family terraced houses, and 1% live in other types of buildings.

Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as growing crops, minerals or water, and wild animals; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, buildings or housing in general. In terms of law, real relates to land property and is different from personal property while estate means the "interest" a person has in that land property.

References

  1. "Spending Patterns in Canada: Data quality, concepts and methodology: Definitions". www.statcan.gc.ca.
  2. Saitta House – Report Part 1 Archived 2008-12-16 at the Wayback Machine ”,DykerHeightsCivicAssociation.com
  3. Canada, Government of Canada, Statistics. "Statistics Canada: 2006 Community Profiles". www12.statcan.ca.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. 1 2 Dillon, Liam (May 13, 2019). "California could bring radical change to single-family home neighborhoods". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2019-05-13.
  5. "The Upzoning Wave Finally Catches Up to California". Bloomberg.com. 1 March 2021. Retrieved 2 March 2021.