What are today’s best-selling home styles? Many aspiring homeowners want to know. Perhaps because knowing home styles that trend can help them make a more informed decision about their own likes (and dislikes) when planning for a new home.
Deciding on what you want, especially if you are an aspiring homeowner, poses a challenge for many. But it shouldn’t be. It is either you want what is more popular, or you want something unique, a deviation from the norm. From modern container homes and A-frame buildings to cottages and chalets, there are residential building styles that have stood the test of time with many still desiring them in this 21st century.
11 Best-Selling Home Styles
People have diverse tastes. While some will veer towards traditional home designs, many prefer the clean sleek lines of modern architecture.
One thing they all have in common? They like homes with modern interior features like open floor plans, high ceilings, split-level floors, master bedroom suites, en-suite bedrooms, home entertainment rooms, and outdoor living spaces. They also desire lots of innovative storage solutions, and luxury fittings and fixtures.
You will find listed some of the most popular styles of them all. And though it’s not in any particular order of preference, these home designs are what most aspiring homeowners opt for.
1. Craftsman architectural style – This is a great favourite for those who love classic home designs. They are large and feature natural stone and wood and are currently the most popular style on the market.
2. Prairie-style houses – Today’s prairie-style plans, not unlike the traditional layouts consists of open floor plans with free-flowing spaces that flow between the indoors and outdoors. Said to be the first original American architectural style, their features include low-pitched or flat roofs, overhanging eaves, and clerestory windows
3. Mediterranean home designs – The architectural home styles from the Mediterranean region (Greece, Spain, France, and Italy) are most recognized by plaster walls, wrought iron, patios, wood beams, and tiled roofs. Their designs often extend outdoors into courtyards or verandas.
4. French eclectic home designs – They come with a symmetrical or asymmetrical facade with stone, bricks, and stucco. They have characteristic tall, steeply pitched, hipped roofs with narrow eaves. Roof materials are tile, slate, and shingles. They neither have porches nor veranda but come with balustraded terraces off first-floor rooms.
5. New American home style – This style combines elements from a variety of styles to create an entirely new look. Features of interest include soaring entryways, a mix of different materials, prominent garages and plenty of space.
6. Country-style homes – They are easily recognized by their influence from 18th-century colonial homes and feature wide porches, shutters, and meticulously spaced windows and wood accents.
7. European style homes – This home style is fashioned after beautiful French, Italian, and English architecture, they feature plaster walls, marble floors, and centrepiece fireplaces. Their elegance has captivated homeowners for centuries.
8. Cottage home plans – A Colonial style that stems from the home styles of the first colonial settlements. They are often small-sized homes with features that include a large front porch, painted woodwork, and a small second story. The charm of a cottage house is too irresistible to pass up.
9. Southern style – These American home designs are built for the hot, humid climate that is typical of the South. Their features include wide roof overhangs, wood shutters, and wrap-around porches.
10. Ranch home styles – Also known as Rambler style, they became popular in the mid-20th century and are often built in an L-shape, U-shape, or rectangle shape. Ranch-style homes are most often single-story homes.
11. Modern home designs – Modern house designs are majorly pre-fab homes and are designed to look and feel clean, open, peaceful, and relaxing. Modern home styles embrace the sharp, sleek, minimalist aesthetics of today’s ‘tech-hungry’ homeowner.
Many of these home designs have modern versions which certainly appeal to most aspiring homeowners.
The best-selling home styles tend to be small to medium-sized home designs. One major reason for this is because of the down-sized living trend, a trend of necessity. Another reason is that people like to be smart and realistic. They know that the larger a house design is, the more money it will cost to build it. And then there is the question of whether you really need all that space.
And now that lots in the city are small and usually narrow plots, the size of what you build will totally depend on the space you have and the money you can afford.
Further reading:
Small House Designs for Empty Nesters and Baby Boomers