Types of Homes That Have Small Backyards

Single-Family Dwelling

• Houses measuring less than 1,500 square feet are growing in popularity and there are plenty of theories about why: a volatile housing market, shoestring budgets and smaller families are all logical explanations, plus folks seem to be avoiding giant plots of land favored a generation or two ago. The rise of intentional communities, empty nesters and people who have given up collecting as much "stuff" as they once did are celebrating small houses and micro-yards, preferring to spend their free time manicuring their nails rather than their hedges.

Town Homes

• Town homes (aka row homes) have become the residence of choice for those who have no need for a McMansion, but they long for more privacy than a condominium may offer. Town home yards are notoriously small and look even smaller thanks to full or demi-walls that visually separate a homeowner from the neighbors. When town home communities are built back-to-back, a yard of sorts separates the rows of units, but in most cases, this easement is not legally part of the homeowner's lot.

Quad Homes

• If quad homes aren't popular in your area, real estate may not be as scarce or valuable as it is in other sections of the country. The quad home literally has no backyard unless it's custom-built architecture with green space at the center. Picture a big square of a building with doors facing north, east, west and south and you understand this building style, beloved by developers who become positively gleeful at the prospect of selling to four families. The parcel of land that serves as the yard for quad homes is actually the front yard, where patios and architectural features create the illusion of a yard.

Duplexes

• Once the only type of multi-family home built in many areas of the country, duplexes were immensely popular years ago when a well-to-do homeowner could afford to buy a two-unit dwelling and rent out the other half to offset the mortgage. Unlike town homes, the two units in a duplex are more likely to share a small, common yard with no boundaries, though there's always the exception. The duplex has pros and cons -- your viewpoint may depend, of course, on whether you're the guy holding the mortgage or the one paying the rent.

High-rise "Backyards"

• Micro-yards rarely come with a condominium deed or a lease, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the backyard experience if you're living in a high rise. Roof garden yards are becoming wildly popular, especially with city dwellers known to lament living amid too much steel and glass. You know who you are: the person complaining that the only green living thing you see on a regular basis is the plant thriving under the office light in your cube.