LI homebuyers opting for townhouses

As financing for single-family housing has dried up, developers are increasingly looking towards clustered housing such as townhouses in Long Island, the New York Times reported.

The most active Long Island buyers — young couples and people just starting families — are choosing clustered housing for practical and financial reasons. A townhouse not only requires less exterior maintenance, it is less likely to lose value, the Times said.

“What was once the prized development to build is now the least attractive — single-family homes,” Glen Cherveny, an architect at Axelrod & Cherveny in Commack, L.I. told the Times.

And townhouses hold value while providing community amenities such as fitness centers and swimming pools. “No one home can choose not to maintain themselves,” Cherveny said. With homes “maintained equally,” home value, dictated by the value of nearby homes, “is protected,” he said. [NYT]