Are Ranch Style Homes A Better Investment?

By Dennis Norman, on February 16th, 2017

The ranch-style home has been around a long time with it’s origin going back to 1920’s but this style of home became extremely popular in the 1940’s carrying through the 1970’s. Ranch-style homes are normally much wider than deep and feature open floor plans with a casual style. Over time, as incomes increased, as did ground cost making the rather large footprint of a ranch more expensive since it needed a larger not to accommodate it, 1.5 and 2-story homes became increasingly popular. Recently, it seems there has been somewhat of a resurgence in terms of interest in ranch-style homes by both aging baby-boomers looking for one-level living, as well as by millennial buyers looking for a more modest home.

Is a ranch style home a better investment?

With ranches having been around for so long and appealing to such a broad range of buyers, it makes you wonder as to whether a ranch-style home would be better from an investment standpoint? With this in mind, I took at look at how ranches have appreciated versus 1.5 or 2 story homes and, as illustrated on the charts below, here is what I found:

Median price increase of ranch-style homes sold in St Charles County over past 5 years – 25.8% and for price per square foot – 28.3%
Median price increase of 1.5 and 2-story homes sold in St Charles County over past 5 years – 16.6% and for price per square foot – 23.6%
- In St Charles County ranch style homes appreciated during the period 20.0% more than 1.5 and 2 story homes.
Median price increase of ranch-style homes sold in St Lous County over past 5 years – 39.5% and for price per square foot – 39.0%
Median price increase of 1.5 and 2-story homes sold in St Louis County over past 5 years – 7.8% and for price per square foot – 18.3%
- In St Louis County ranch style homes appreciated during the period 113% more than 1.5 and 2 story homes.

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