Buyers Eye Benefits of One-Story Living
One-story homes offer open layouts, simpler maintenance and long-term usability, aligning with how many buyers want to live now.
NEW YORK — Single-story homes are drawing renewed interest for reasons that go well beyond style, Florida-based interior designer Cheryl Clendenon told Southern Living magazine.
Their appeal is tied to how people want to live now, with more connected common spaces, flexible layouts, easier indoor-outdoor flow and features that can support long-term living and aging in place.
Design choices such as main-level primary suites and laundry rooms, wider passageways, continuous flooring and multipurpose spaces can make one-story homes more practical for both everyday uses. These layouts can also be more cost-efficient to build and maintain, with simpler structural systems, fewer mechanical complexities and easier access for repairs, which can help keep long-term upkeep and renovation costs in check.
"With an apparent tendency towards staying put for longer, we are huge supporters of planning a single-story home layout well so it ebbs and flows with the natural progression of life changes people experience over the course of time," Clendenon said. “That mix of comfort, function, and long-term usability is helping bring one-story homes back into focus.”
Source: Southern Living (03/15/26) Shannon, Patricia
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