For many prospective home buyers in Chicagoland, the pros and cons of an attached vs. detached home arise. Both types of homes have considerations, and price points also vary depending on the location. Before making a decision, it is important to determine your needs and budget.
What is the Difference Between Attached vs Detached Home?
An attached family home is typically defined as a family residence that shares an element, such as a wall or ceiling/floor, with another property. Contrast this with a detached home, where the residence is in a building that stands alone.
An attached single-family home only shares one element, whereas the condominium structure most common in Illinois is multi-family, i.e., multiple residences within a single building. Condominiums, however, are not legally defined by their physical characteristics but by the financial agreement that owners enter into.
Attached vs Detached Home Price Points
One of the biggest differences between attached vs detached homes is the price point. Price is particularly important when considering townhouse pros and cons.
As of February 2025, we’ve summarized price points for a circumference of Chicago suburbs based on Trulia. In general, we found the below most common sizes and used a few exceptions depending on each city’s availability.
- 2 bedroom/2 bath for condominiums
- 3 bedroom/2-3 bath for townhouses
- 4 bedrooms/3 bath from single-family homes
Orland Park
Orland Park is a Chicago suburb for all spending levels. As of writing, it had 110 2bd+ options, ranging from an un-priced three-bedroom townhome for auction to a $1,875,000 4bd, 6ba home on 0.86 acres.
Most of the Orland Park condominiums available were priced at $200,000 and above. All had two or three bedrooms. 39 of the 125 available homes were townhomes. Whether two- three-, or four-bedroom, they were geographically dispersed throughout the town.
In total, Orland Park had 37 homes with four bedrooms or more. Of those, 35 were detached and ranging from as low as $274,900 up to the 0.86-acre home mentioned above.
Downers Grove
As of February 2025, you can generally expect to pay around $225,000 for a 1,000-square-foot condo in Downers Grove. However, condominiums make up the minority of available homes in Downers Grove.
Neighboring Woodridge, IL, had more available condo options. Downers Grove had just a few more townhomes available than the other attached options. These ranged from 1,800 to 3,000 sqft for those seeking a single-family feel with townhome amenities.
When it comes to single-family detached homes, there is a robust mix of older homes and new construction in Downers Grove. Of 14 new construction homes, prices ranged from $1,048,000 to $2,499,000. Most of these are in the center of Downers Grove city limits.
All available four-bedroom+ homes in Downers Grove were detached.
Des Plaines
In contrast, the new construction in Des Plaines, IL, is almost entirely townhomes. In fact, as of early February 2025, only one detached new construction home was on the market. Two of the newly constructed Des Plaines homes were condominiums.
In total, Des Plaines had 50 attached homes for sale, ranging from $159,000 for a 1bd/1ba condo to $505,000 for a 3bd/4ba townhome. Multiple 1 bd/1 ba attached homes were available, all in the mid $100,000s. The average for two-bedroom condos was in the high $100,000s until you exceeded the 1,000 sqft mark.
Des Plaines three-plus-bedroom homes for sale were less than half single-family. They were all different shapes and sizes, including nine with four bedrooms or more. These larger homes were spread throughout the town and the surrounding northwest, north, and east edges into Mt. Prospect and Park Ridge.
Glenview
Glenview had 47 two-bedroom+ homes available, nine of which were condominiums. The condos’ list prices ranged from $195,000 to $575,000.
The townhomes in Glenview are unique in that there are quite sizeable options. The most spacious was a 3,142 sqft attached home listed at $649,900. The least expensive among the other six townhome options was listed at $399,900 and 1,800 sqft.
Thirty-one homes were detached, of which 16 were listed over $1 million. On the low end were two houses listed in the $300,000s.
In Glenview, 26 of the 52 listings were four-bedroom+ detached homes. Only three with two+ bedrooms had a recent price reduction. All three homes were detached.
Lombard
In comparison to Glenview, Lombard is on the other end of the price spectrum among the Chicago suburbs we looked at. With 61 two-bedroom+ homes available, the average listing price in Lombard was many times less than a single Glenview listing.
Four of the homes had a price reduction in the past week. Among those were the higher-priced previously-occupied homes for the area, in the upper $300,000s and low $400,000s. The 13 homes in the $600,000 to $1 million range were a combination of detached and attached homes.
There were only two available condos in Lombard with three+ bedrooms and 16 townhomes. Fifteen of those townhomes were new constructions. Expanding the search to two+ bedroom attached homes, we got 29 options as of February 2025. Six were newly listed.
Attached vs Detached Home Considerations
If you’re weighing your options, it’s important to account for certain lifestyle choices. Attached homes and detached homes have more differences than just price points and location. You must also consider maintenance, renovations, amenities, freedom, yard space, privacy, and security.
Maintenance
What kind of homeowner lifestyle are you looking for? Owning a home is a lot of responsibility, and with maintenance comes expense. But, in an attached home, you are only responsible for the maintenance of structures that belong to your space alone.
Maintenance of shared walls, plumbing, and roofs is the responsibility of your condo or townhome association. That is a major part of what your association fee goes towards. While the fee may seem hefty, it creates predictability in your budget. A house owner, on the other hand, often has surprise expenses, and many of them are significant.
Furthermore, in Illinois, snow removal is an inevitable inconvenience. But, in an attached home with an association, this task is typically taken care of for you. The downside is that you don’t have control over when the snow is plowed if you aren’t doing it yourself. You’ll have to wait for your plow company to get through the queue of customers before you.
Lawn care is another responsibility you won’t need to worry about in most attached home associations. That can be shouldered by the association, covered by owner fees.
Renovations
There is typically less room for flexibility when it comes to renovating townhomes and condos. Because you share many elements with neighbors in these communities, you don’t always have the freedom to choose paint colors, materials, and designs. More often than not, you will have to defer to your HOA.
Amenities
Another common difference in attached vs detached homes is amenities. Many condo communities have a space you can rent for parties, walking paths or ponds, a fitness room, and often a pool and tennis courts.
Less often do townhome communities have such amenities, but they are even more rare in single-family home neighborhoods. These features can foster social experiences and can be fun for young or single homeowners.
Freedom
Attached homes have more rules and regulations than detached homes. When you are living near other homeowners or renters, rules and regulations go a long way to keep the peace. But those rules will also limit or prohibit things you may want to do.
For certain renovations in an attached home community, for example, you’ll likely need to get the approval of your association. Consider this among townhouse pros and cons, as you might find this type of home is the perfect balance between regulations and freedom.
Yard Space
Yard space is also quite limited with attached homes. You may not be on the ground floor; even if you are, you may only have a small outdoor space to call your own.
In the heart of Chicago, this may be a worthwhile trade-off, but some homeowners in the suburbs really want/expect a yard. Not all detached homes have a great yard either, but it will usually be larger than a townhouse or condo.
The only restrictions in single-family communities are that you’ll need a permit for large in-yard structures and possibly fence rules to ensure consistency with neighbors.
Privacy
Detached homes generally offer more privacy since they don’t share walls, but some attached homes provide better soundproofing. If you value your privacy and don’t want to live in close proximity to neighbors, a detached home is better suited for you.
Security
Condos and townhomes often have gated communities, shared security, or HOA-monitored systems. Meanwhile, detached homes rely on individual security measures.
Some detached home communities are part of a larger HOA. However, security is still not guaranteed unless the HOA is a gated one.
A Worthwhile Decision
Whether you choose attached or detached, make sure to read in detail the bylaws, rules, and regulations of any home with an association that you are seriously considering buying. You don’t want any surprises once you’ve purchased.
Hillcrest helps condo, townhome, and HOA communities prosper. Call us today at 630-627-3303 or contact us online to request a proposal!
