Why DC has so many

rowhomes, and how they’re

different from townhomes
HOUSINGBy Bryan Barnett-Woods (Contributor) June 14, 2018 56

Monroe Street in DC by Adam Fagen licensed under Creative Commons.

Many neighborhoods in DC, from Capitol Hill to Petworth to Georgetown, have streets
lined with rowhomes. This style evolved in response to the city's constraints on space,
and these houses also help fill the need for a type of housing that's between detached
homes and large apartment buildings.

Rowhomes have a lot of great features — for one, they can be built compactly enough
to be within walking distance of nearby stores and offices. Their tighter development
pattern also means that infrastructure can be used effectively, allowing more people can
be served by the city's roadways, transit, water and sewer, and more. Of course, there
are drawbacks: shared walls can mean more noise, they are smaller, and there can be
less privacy.
These rowhomes in DC tend to have less square footage and have only on-street
parking, but they are in a walkable, transit-connected neighborhood.  Image by the
author.
This more compact type of home works well in a city like DC because it allows for
more density than detached single-family dwellings. They are also ostensibly easier to
build than apartment buildings, which often require elevators, common areas, and
garages. Rowhomes are a natural response to our built environment where space is
limited but access to nearby amenities like shops, transit, and parks is important.

What are townhouses and how are they different?

Outside of DC, there is a similar housing type generally referred to as a “townhouse.”

Technically they are different: rowhomes line a street in a row with a common facade
and are usually owned by individuals, while townhomes are often grouped in varying
layouts within a development. (That makes some of the townhouses in areas outside of
DC rowhomes and some of the rowhomes in DC townhomes.)

A townhome also shares a common wall with the adjacent dwellings on either side, and
it's usually two to three stories tall. It typically belongs to a larger development and has
a homeowners association that governs common-area issues and upkeep. However,
details vary so sometimes it's difficult to distinguish these types of housing.
A newly-built residential subdivision with townhouses off of MD-301. Image by the
author.
Originally, townhouses were dwellings that were, as the name suggests, in “town” and
represented the dwelling counter-point to the “country house.” Today, this criterion no
longer seems to apply. Townhomes are located all over the country, and many new
residential developments contain townhouses regardless of their proximity to shops,
transit, parks, etc.

Most modern townhomes are not designed to take advantage of city amenities. Many
include garages and are only slightly smaller than newly-built detached homes — and in
some cases, they're bigger than older detached houses. Today’s townhomes are more
akin to single-family dwellings that have been squished together than of rowhomes built
for a city.

One reason for the growth in townhouses is the value, both in terms of the price a
potential homeowner would pay and the profit that a developer would make.
Homebuilders argue that there is substantial demand for townhouses because they are at
a price point that most families can afford. While this is true for many of the
townhouses located in less dense parts of the region, they can be just as expensive as
single-family dwellings, especially in highly sought-after neighborhoods.
Newly built townhouses (left) outside the Beltway and older rowhomes (right) in DC.
Image by the author.
The other half of the value argument comes from the profit potential for selling
townhouses. A townhouse has a smaller footprint than a traditional single-family
dwelling. Since home builders have a limited amount of land, they can build and sell
more townhouses than they can single-family dwellings.

Developers and home builders are not in business to promote good urbanism, they are in
business to make money. It makes sense that they often choose a housing style where
they can sell as many homes on a piece of land as possible.

What makes rowhouses and townhouses work?

This isn't to suggest that new construction isn't desireable nor that living outside of a
city is bad. There are benefits to each! Townhouses and rowhouses can both contribute
to increasing density in neighborhoods. That in turn is good for leveraging infrastructure
investment, increasing a customer base for local businesses, and reducing some of the
detrimental environmental effects of sprawling development patterns.

However, townhouses and rowhouses are not good for all places. For this style to be
optimal, a few things should be in place:

Townhouses work best in walkable locations near other amenities. Otherwise they are
merely isolated dense spots.
 1. Proximity to high-capacity transit. Since townhouses and rowhouses have less
parking than single-family dwellings, a household should be able to regularly and
conveniently use transit and be less dependent on automobiles.
2. Proximity to shops and amenities. Businesses benefit from a larger customer
or user base, so it's ideal for townhouses to be located near existing businesses
amenities. This increases the number of people who can easily patronize them.
This generally doesn’t work the other way around because a single townhouse
development does not have enough people on its own for a business to succeed.
3. Gridded street networks with sidewalks and bicycle facilities. Street
networks providing direct connections to surrounding areas are necessary for
truly walkable neighborhoods and increase accessibility to surrounding areas.
Neighborhoods with only one access point to a major road or neighborhoods with
turn-arounds and cul-de-sacs are not accessible for people walking, and therefore
increase reliance on automobiles.
4. Streets and alleys. Since townhouses and rowhouses, by nature, are built
closely together, it's important that the front of the house and street can act as the
welcoming outdoor space, while the rear of the house can accommodate the
utilitarian aspects of the house. This means a street in front of the house has the
infrastructure to allow people to walk by, a small yard or porch for socializing,
and an address that the mail or pizza delivery person can find. An alley needs to
be in place for garbage collection or for accessing a rear garage.
In many places today, townhouse developments are built without these features, leaving
what's essentially a traditional single-family dwelling subdivision that has been more
closely squeezed together. It has all of the drawbacks of townhouses, such as less
privacy and outdoor space, with all the drawbacks of single-family dwelling
subdivisions, like automobile dependency. Rowhouses in the District, on the other hand,
tend to check all of these boxes, which helps explain their continuing popularity.