TownHouse

*In the United States and Canada, a townhouse has two connotations.[citation needed] The older predates the automobile and denotes a house on a small footprint[clarification needed] in a city (Urban), but due to having multiple floors (sometimes six or more) it has a large living space, often with servant's quarters. It is a two or three floor single-family residence. The small footprint of the townhouse allows it to be within walking or mass transit distance of business and industrial areas of the city, yet luxurious enough for wealthy residents of the city. In areas so densely built that detached Single Family Home-s are uncommon or almost nonexistent, ownership of a townhouse connotes wealth. Some examples of cities where townhouses are occupied almost exclusively by the wealthy are New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, and San Francisco.

"RowHouse-s" are similar, and consist of several adjacent (next to), uniform units originally found in urban areas on the east coast such as Baltimore and Philadelphia, but now found in lower-cost housing developments in SubUrbs as well. A rowhouse will generally be smaller and less luxurious than a dwelling called a townhouse.

The name "townhouse" or "townhomes" was later used to describe non-uniform units in suburban areas that are designed to mimic detached or semi-detached homes. The distinction between dwellings called just "apartments" or "condos" is that these townhouses usually consist of multiple families, usually on multiple floors ("apartments"). The non traditional "townhouse" apartment is a two bedroom unit with the living room in the front on the lower level, kitchen in the back. Two bedrooms are on the front and back of the upper level with a single bathroom between. This style has become less popular in areas where it has been adopted by 'rent control' or HUD apartments.*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townhouse#Canada_and_United_States