We recently received a great question on our Facebook page, asking about the differences between condos and townhouses. Here is the second part of our three-part overview comparing and contrasting these two types of New York City property.

While the word “condo” the ownership of the property, the word “townhouse” or “brownstone” refers to its architecture, not its ownership status. Here at Vandenberg, we deal only with townhouses. While some firms use townhouse to refer only to single-family homes, we include any building that looks like a townhouse from the outside. These buildings are generally less than 26 feet wide, between 4 and 6 stories, and often have a stoop or an English basement. The vast majority of New York City townhouses were originally built in the 19th and early 20th centuries, which often gives their facades an old-fashioned charm. Some houses are being built as we speak, in all sorts of contemporary architectural styles – these are townhouses too!

While most townhouses were originally single-family homes, the economic ups and downs of the last century caused many of them to be broken up into apartments, offices, or Single Room Occupancy buildings. Nowadays, many buyers restore these townhouses to single-family glory, while others enjoy living with the income that multi-unit townhouses provide.