Every house has a style. Sometimes it has two or more; because of renovations and new, eclectic mixes, fitting a home into one specific category can be daunting or even impossible. Thankfully, there’s no need to memorize complicated architectural terminology. REALTOR® Magazine has compiled a convenient compendium of common styles. Delve in and learn to highlight the details that give a home character, history, and romance.
California Ranch
Ranch
Sometimes called the California ranch style, this home in the Modern family, originated there in 1930s. It emerged as one of the most popular American styles in the 1950s and 60s, when the automobile had replaced early 20th-century forms of transportation, such as streetcars.
Now mobile homebuyers could move to the suburbs into bigger homes on bigger lots. The style takes its cues from Spanish Colonial and Prairie and Craftsman homes, and is characterized by its one-story, pitched-roof construction, built-in garage, wood or brick exterior walls, sliding and picture windows, and sliding doors leading to patios.
Quite a few homes have landed on the National Register of Historic Places thanks to notable past residents. Others make the list because of a legendary builder. Whatever the reason, each home on the register has been deemed worthy of preservation and protection—in the national interest.
Created in 1966, the National Register now includes more than 92,000 properties that are part of the fabric of the country’s shared heritage. Owners of such a special property must agree to certain limitations on how much of the structure can be changed, in order to preserve its historic value. Purchasing one means owning a piece of, and place in, American history.
If you’d like to be a steward of one of these historic residences, several are available as we speak. To aid your hunt, we’ve pinpointed nine homes on the National Register you can buy right now. Take a look, and step back in time—and into one of these lovely abodes.
A striking French-style chateau with a very complicated past is this week’s most popular home.
Built in 1925 by a French immigrant, Sylvester Dupuy, who was inspired by the grand French chateaus of his youth, the “Pyrenees Castle” stayed in Dupuy’s family for decades. After changing hands a couple of times, the distinctive home on a hill overlooking Alhambra, CA, was purchased by the music producer Phil Spector in 1998 for $1.1 million.
After a night out in 2003, Spector met Lana Clarkson and brought her back to the estate, where she was shot and killed. The music legend was convicted of her murder. During his trial in 2006, Spector met and married Rachelle Spector, who until recently was devoted to updating the mansion until her husband’s release.
“I won’t rest until my husband comes home to this house, where he belongs,” she said during her 2012 testimony against the city of Alhambra over a nearby construction project.
But that was then. Now Rachelle and Phil are in the midst of acontentious divorce, so the chateau is being sold and the proceeds split between the couple.
Rounding out this week’s list are a variety of incredible home remodels and an over-the-top Las Vegas mansion worthy of a second look. There’s also an impeccably maintained 1960s time capsule in Sacramento and two notable properties in Reno—one with a custom “Haunted Mansion” theme—generating plenty of clicks.
Rates moved up slightly this week while mortgage applications decreased following last week’s jump in rates – indicating borrower sensitivity to changing mortgage rates. Despite the recent rise, we expect mortgage rates to remain low, in line with the low 10-year treasury yields, boosting homebuyer demand in the next few months.
Built in 1776—a rather auspicious year for the United States—an enormous and well-preserved Virginia estate is this week’s most popular listing on realtor.com®.
Dripping in Americana and spanning nearly 1,500 acres of rolling, green Virginia soil, the property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The main house is a jaw-dropping 38,500 square feet of ornate, hard-carved touches, representing the very best the era had to offer. The grounds include several residences, farm and equestrian facilities, and even a shooting preserve.
While the historic home captured the bulk of the clicks this week, it was just one of the notable properties making up our eclectic Top 10 list this week.
There’s a San Antonio bungalow priced under $100,000, just begging for a savvy shopper to show it some love. Or a fully renovated Maryland home with the cachet of having once been owned by the famous hunting decoy carver Paul Gibson. Perhaps the North Carolina mansion built as a “tennis palace” with both indoor and outdoor courts will appeal to you.
No matter your game, we’re serving up all of this week’s most popular properties, if you’ll just scroll on down…
What is a modular home? The real estate industry is full of many housing options. If you’re looking to buy a home, or considering building one, you may have heard that modular homes are an increasingly popular option. In a nutshell, modular homes have parts that are manufactured in a factory. Those parts are then transported to the property and assembled there by a builder.
What is a modular home?
First introduced near the end of World War II, modular homes—also called factory-built, prefabricated, or prefab—still represent only about 1.5% of the homes manufactured in the U.S. today. But modular homes are getting hotter than ever with design-savvy buyers who want the flexibility to choose their floor plans and styles.
In other words: Just because it’s made in a factory doesn’t mean it’s a boring box just like everyone else’s. That’s a myth of modular building!
“There is a preconceived notion that modular homes are plain Jane or boring,” says Fred Hallahan, a housing industry consultant with Hallahan Associates in Baltimore.
In reality, modular homes can come in any style the homeowner wishes, from Cape Cod to Mediterranean to modern, and with any number of architectural and design flourishes.
Modular homes cannot be moved
Modular homes should also not be confused with manufactured homes (aka a mobile home), which are built entirely in a factory, then transported in one piece. Modular homes, by contrast, are site-built homes that cannot be moved; they can be much larger and offer some unique benefits over homes built from scratch.
Advantages of modular homes
There are three main benefits to going modular over traditional in real estate.
Speed: The main shell of a modular home can be completed in a factory in just five to eight days, with assembly and finishing work completed at the building site. Weather issues pose less of a delay for the modular construction process, unlike traditional construction.
Cost: Modular homes may cost less because they can be manufactured faster; some builders will say they can build a home for as little as $35 per square foot—compared with $125 per square foot for a home built on-site. However, keep in mind that that $35 is just a quote, and applies only to the base price. You’ll need to buy the property and install electrical lines and plumbing. You may also want to make additions or modifications for your home. The more realistic all-inclusive price for a modular home hovers around $110 per square foot. The cost advantage will be more pronounced in areas where building costs are higher, which is why they are particularly popular in areas like the Northeast, where they constitute nearly 4% of all new builds, says Hallahan.
Quality: Manufactured homes may actually be of superior quality to those built on-site, primarily because the materials are not exposed to the elements, from cold to precipitation to humidity. Modular homes also often benefit from better supervision than when multiple subcontractors are working to build a home. Prefab homes also tend to be more energy-efficient, which means you may be able to save on your energy bills.
How to buy a modular home
You can shop for pre-existing modular homes on realtor.com. If you want to build your own, you can shop for styles and sizes at ModularHomeowners.com.
Modular homes use “construction to permanent” financing, just as if you were building a regular house. The process begins with a construction loan during the building phase and then once the modular home is complete, your loan will be converted into a “permanent” loan.
It’s definitely not what you’d expect to see in the suburbs just a few miles from the New Jersey shore, but an over-the-top luxurious log cabin in Freehold Township is the week’s most popular home on realtor.com®.
According to the listing agent, Howard Schneider, the cabin is something of a local landmark.
“Everyone in the area knows it,” he says. “And this is the first time it’s been on the market.
The owners built the 6,000-square-foot home in the style of a Colorado ski chalet. Best of all? They added a private saloon for entertaining friends and family. But after a decade of enjoying the cabin, they plan to retire to Florida. They’re now listing their home for $1,579,000.
Other homes making a dent on our list this week include the New York compound of Orange County Choppers founder Paul Teutul, an immaculate midcentury modern ranch in Georgia, and an Ohio home recently rescued from demolition that’s practically free to any buyer willing to hook up the utilities.
