Residential dwellings can be built in a large variety of configurations. This summarizes some of them:
- Backsplit - a multilevel house that appears as a bungalow from the front elevation
- Back to back - Teraced houses (see below) which also adjoin a second terrace to the rear. They were a common form of housing for workers during the industrial revolution in England.
- Bungalow - a single story house
- Detached house - any house that is completely separated from its neighbours. It can then be characterized as a bungalow, backsplit, two storey, etc.
- Frontsplit - a multilevel house that appears as a two storey house in front and a bunaglow in the back. It is the opposite of a backsplit and is a rare configuration.
- Linked house - a rowhouse or semi-detached house that is linked only at the foundation. Above ground, they appear as detached houses. Linking the foundations reduces cost.
- Penthouse
- Rowhouse - also called "townhouse"; also called "terraced home": 3 or more houses in a row sharing a "party" wall with its adjacent neighbour. In British English, a townhouse is a house in the city; to distinguish from a house in the country and is not necessarily a rowhouse. In New York, "Brownstones" are rowhouses. Rowhouses are typically multiple storeys. If land is expensive enough to sacrifice the privacy of detached homes, it also justifies multiple storeys.
- Semi-detached - a 2 unit rowhouse, often called a "duplex"
- Sidesplit - a multilevel house where the different levels are visible from the front elevation
- Stacked townhouse - units are stacked on each other; units may be multilevel; all units have direct access from the outside
- Terraced - A line of houses which abut directly on to each other built with shared party walls between dwellings. ( see Rowhouse)
- Two storey and more
