The Truth About Townhouses

Now that the market is, um, correcting, it poses an opportunity for some people to take advantage and jump into to real estate. I realize that not everyone has several million dollars to invest in a home, but for those who do, a townhouse is a beautiful way to live.

A vacant townhouse is always a premium, but sometimes you can buy a townhouse with rent stabilized tenants and empty it over time. I've sold several homes to people who were taking them over for their own use, and have gotten a great deal. Maybe you only need to live in half the space for several years as your family grows. Then you even have income to offset the costs.

How many couples argue over leaving the city? I hear it all the time: the husband is ready to go, and the wife, (rightly) concerned about her quality of life is reluctant to leave. If she's the primary caregiver, she'll be the one in the minivan schlepping all day long. A townhouse is the perfect compromise to the suburban alternative.

Some people are "view" people. They want to look out their window and see lots of sky, or the Park, or the River. I get it; it can be pretty spectacular. Some people are "amenities" people...they want the doorman to take the dry cleaning, they want the gym in the basement, and the super to take care of leaks. I get that as well.

But those people who can be persuaded to leave those things behind, a townhouse offers so much more.

First of all, on a square foot basis, a townhouse is generally a better value than an apartment. In a townhouse, you're usually getting a minimum of 3000 sf, up to what can easily be 7000 sf. Let's take an average 18 sf townhouse of 4 stories and call it 4500 usable sf. Let's not forget the additional 400 sf of outdoor space on the garden level, and say an additional terrace somewhere off of the extension of 150 sf. A vacant townhouse (which will need work, no doubt) will run you more or less $1000 per sf, but it soon could be less than that. When you're finished with a high end renovation, it'll have cost you $1200 to $1400 per sf, and you'll have everything you've ever wanted in a home without leaving for the suburbs. Let's discuss further before we talk about townhouse particulars:

If you're buying a townhouse, you have kids. Maybe lots of them. Are you constantly worried about them bouncing a ball above your neighbor's heads and having the doorman call you to complain? Fear no more. What about a big classic eight apartment that still only has 1 kids bath? It's still $4M, with no outdoor space, and not a lot of room to roam.

Do you have a dog? Tired of that midnight walk to insure that your Oriental carpet isn't ruined further? A townhouse provides the answers. Not to mention that it can provide that Viking BBQ that you've secretly always coveted. Most townhouses were built with multiple gas burning or wood burning fireplaces. How many apts have one or more functioning fireplaces? It's easy to dismiss it, but mid-January when you smell someone burning a fire in their hearth, doesn't make you a tad wistful?

A townhouse affords you more privacy than the average apt. Unless you have 14 rooms somewhere, even a sprawling apt doesn't really keep the kids out of your hair. But if you have a playroom, or your own study, there's room for peace as well as play. It's a fallacy that townhouses are dark--it depends how it's situated, but a north/south townhouse generally gets great sun in different places through the day.

There are many different period of townhouse styles (and that's a different post). In the village, you'll find a lot of Federal, Greek Revival and Georgian (mid to late 19th century), but on the Upper West, there are far more 20th century homes, many in a Queen Anne, Romanesque or Revival style. I live in a townhouse built around 1907 for German laborers (who had come to NY to build fancier townhouses). My home (17') was specifically constructed for the middle class.

The structure of a townhouse is pretty standard. They vary in width, anywhere from 13' to over 25'. (14' is pretty small, but I've seen it work many times. The rooms are still 13' across). A 25' townhouse, usually built in limestone and not brownstone, were generally built as mansions and feel that way. They are extraordinary. The gold standard for a townhouse is generally 20', but 17' and 18' are pretty common as well. Even in a 17' townhouse you can usually accommodate an elevator (which may sound dumb and unnecessary but it's important for re-sale and your in-laws will appreciate it. It costs about $100,000 to install). In addition, a 17' townhouse, you can still split one big room and make it 2 kid's rooms, each of a decent size.

Some townhouses have basements below the ground floor that can be dug out even further, which allows for things like a kid's playroom, a wine cellar, a screening room. All of the trappings of Suburbia without the Sam's Club. Some townhouses have the mechanicals on the ground floor and no basement. This is often referred to as an "English Basement" and the ceiling height is usually over 8'.

The location of the stairs also changes the feeling of the home. A center staircase rather than a straight staircase, allows for more gracious rooms on either side of it. I've noticed that many narrow townhouses have a center stair to make them appear more gracious inside.

The ground floor is often used as the kitchen floor which leads out to the garden. Depending on your needs, people often create a guest room or staff room on this floor as well.

The parlor floor is the entrance off of the stoop. Many townhouses were built with stoops, although there are some built with the original entrance on the street. The parlor floor was built as the receiving floors. They were always the most ornate, with the highest ceilings, most intricate woodwork. Many people have installed their kitchens and living rooms on this floor instead of the ground floor, but that was not the original layout.

Often a townhouse was built with an extension off the back that usually makes a great study on the parlor floor (and then becomes a terrace because it usually wasn't built the entire height of the home).

The next 2 or 3 floors are for the bedrooms. Historically, the master bedroom floor was located right above the parlor, and then the children's rooms and then the staff rooms. Depending on the width, one can easily get 3 or bedrooms per floor, and as many as 2 baths (and a laundry room!)

There's often room to build up, generally a half a floor with another terrace.This floor will often have extraordinary light as well.

If you're lucky, you'll also get a terrace for your morning coffee, and a giant walk in closet for your master suite. There's usually enough room for a home office as well as a den. And the short commute makes a real difference in everyone's lives.

To me, it beats a McMansion in Larchmont any day.