The 5 most common house styles on the market right now

– Total houses sold, January 2020 through May 2022: 464,125

– 2020 average sale price: $289,065 (#33 highest)

– 2022 average sale price: $351,712 (#33 highest)

Synonymous with the post-WWII “American Dream,” the Ranch style is characterized by its open layout, typically with an attached garage space or a carport. The ranch home foregoes multiple stories in favor of a sprawling single story, often under a gently sloped roof.

Despite the name, it doesn’t necessarily entail a farmhouse-type design. Instead, pioneering architect Joseph Eichler designed about 11,000 tract homes during the post-war boom with indoor-outdoor living spaces, open space plans, and lots of windows that were made to be lasting—and affordable. The homes were a hit and Eichler, who was also an advocate of racially integrated housing during the 1950s, hoped his suburban housing communities would welcome all.

Modern-day suburbs were bolstered by the popularity of automobiles starting in the 1920s, which enabled Americans to venture into regions outside of city centers.  As Americans migrated to the suburbs after WWII, they built sprawling single-story homes to live in and designed their communities to accommodate more motor vehicles.

The suburbs have been a popular destination for Americans who purchased homes over the last two years—a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that Americans moved out of urban centers in droves. Sellers of ranch homes have benefited from this trend.

This story originally appeared on Realm and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.