When Mona and Eric Merchant went house-hunting earlier this year, they knew the type of house they wanted and where they wanted to live.
They had their sights set on a single-family house in either Glenview or Long Grove. As parents of Mia, 4, they pictured moving from the older townhouse where they had been living into a single-family home with ample space and a grassy back yard where their daughter could play.
The house hunt was an eye-opener for Mona Merchant, who is a physician, and for her husband, who works in information technology. It prompted them to alter their vision of where they would live.
“We found that the prices were very steep. The single-family homes we looked at were very expensive or the ones that were affordable were old and needed work,” Mona Merchant said.
So instead of a buying a single-family house, they purchased a townhouse.
Buyers like the Merchants, who decide to switch from buying a single-family house to a townhouse or vice versa are not uncommon, nor are they fickle, realty agents and builders say.
Although lifestyle sometimes plays a role, the key to whether someone will settle on a townhouse or single-family home tends to be the price.
Sometimes people have the opposite experience of the Merchants. They discover they can afford more than they thought.
“Most people go out with the idea that a townhouse is going to be a lifestyle and budget fit for them. But if it can work within their budget, they will change their minds and go for a single-family house,” said Leigh Nevers, vice president of marketing for the Chicago division of Lennar Corp.
Nevers’ company built the master-planned community where Lourdes and Ivan Nogy bought their house. Like the Merchants, they had the bottom line in mind as they conducted their house search.
They ended up buying a single-family house at the Midlane Club in Wadsworth. Single-family homes there currently are base-priced at $385,900. Townhouses range from $201,900 to $256,900.
“We were looking at what we could afford to buy. We looked at the townhouses and the single-family houses. We thought ‘Oh, the single-family houses are too much,'” said Lourdes Nogy.
The couple were firmly convinced a single-family home was out of their financial reach until they got a phone call following their visit.
“When we got home, the builder called and offered us a huge discount,” said Lourdes Nogy.
Their home, which they moved into in June, ended up costing them a bit more than $300,000.
Incentives such as the price reduction the Nogys received “tend to open up buyers’ minds,” Nevers said.
Nevers says her company doesn’t have a goal of trying to persuade buyers in either direction as they consider buying the house they really want.
“It doesn’t really matter to us,” she said. “There’s a business plan we follow. Each product line is treated as its own business.”
At the same time, she noted that it can be beneficial to a builder to sell a house that is already completed, even giving the buyer a discount, over selling one that is planned but not yet constructed.
“We’d much rather sell an inventory single-family house with an incentive than a townhouse that is yet to be built,” she said. “We’d rather not carry those costs [of the inventory house]. But we wouldn’t want to sway someone on that basis.”
A slowing housing market may mean, however, that buyers are more likely to see builders offering discounts or other incentives to help them make up their minds to purchase.
“The prices are cooling somewhat. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to bottom out,” said Georgia Pierini, a Realtor with Baird and Warner Real Estate in Glenview.
Pierini, for one, said her decision to buy a townhouse was based on lifestyle.
As the longtime owner of a single-family house, it took her awhile, however, to accept the idea of attached living.
After selling her house in Northbrook, Pierini wanted to downsize. She thought, however, that she wasn’t ready to move to a townhouse or condo.
“I thought I wasn’t ready to live close to someone else [in attached living],” she said.
So she purchased a ranch-style house with a swimming pool in Mount Prospect.
It was only a matter of time before the tasks of taking care of the house took their toll.
“I thought what am I doing?” she recalled. “I don’t want to shovel snow. I don’t want to be mowing grass when it is 97 degrees out.”
Although she still had reservations about a possible lack of privacy in attached, multifamily housing, she decided to take the plunge and purchase a townhouse.
Now she is happy to have reached her original goal of simplifying her life. She pays an association fee and leaves the exterior maintenance to someone else.
“I just sit down every month and write a check. I know it’s going to be taken care of,” she said.
For buyers reluctant to consider townhouse or condo living over a single-family house, she said she would advise them to take a hard look at what sort of lifestyle they want.
“If you want to downsize and simplify your life, but you say you can’t live in a townhouse or condo, I’d say you should sit down and examine your reasons for not wanting a townhouse,” she said.
A decision to delay the inevitable can be costly.
Pierini said her move to another single-family house before moving to her townhouse ended up costing her more in the long run.
Her house in Mount Prospect was gorgeous, she said, but she had to install a new roof, furnace and pool heater.
“I would have saved money if I’d just gone right into a townhouse. But it was a process I had to go through,” she said.
Fortunately for people like Pierini, who want the low-maintenance lifestyle of a condo or townhouse, such units have become a growing portion of the market.
Townhouses and row houses were 9 percent of sales transactions nationwide in 2005, up from 7 percent in 1999, said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve seen a bit of an uptrend in townhouses. That speaks to lifestyle. It also can be an affordability issue. Townhouses are more popular in higher-cost markets,” he said.
The townhouse the Merchants purchased at Tower Crossing in Glenview fits Molony’s description of being in a high-priced market. The family has found some upsides to being in a townhouse. There is a common yard in front of the development and a park across the street where their daughter plays.
“There are a lot of kids. It seems to be open and friendly,” said Mona Merchant.
They also like the new construction of their unit. They didn’t have to do any work to update or improve the townhouse. Such tasks appeared formidable with the single-family houses they had considered.
“The single-family houses were $850,000 and up and we would have had to spend the time and energy to do rehab,” Mona Merchant said.
The four-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath townhouse they purchased cost about $855,000. Still, they haven’t given up their dream of someday having a stand-alone house.
“I still feel a little pinch that I don’t have a single-family home,” Mona Merchant said.
The Nogys, however, are happy they decided to make a switch in their buying plan. They envision staying in their single-family house for a long time.
They are the parents of two children who like having a yard and ample room to play.
“When we moved in my eldest son said to me, `Mom, I wish we could live here forever,'” Lourdes Nogy said.
