Top Architectural Styles: Listing Data & Market Trends

Published on: May 21, 2025

When you picture your perfect home, what comes to mind? A charming Craftsman with a welcoming front porch? A light-filled Northwest Contemporary with clean lines and natural materials? Or maybe something more classic, like a Traditional or Cape Cod-style home?

No matter your design preferences, Northwest MLS brokers are here to help. With the ability to search and advertise listings by 12 distinct architectural styles, NWMLS brokers bring local expertise and powerful search tools to help buyers find homes that match their unique tastes.

What’s Trending? A Look at 10 Years of Market Data

We took a look at sales data from the Northwest MLS database—the most comprehensive in the region, with hundreds of thousands of listings dating back to the 1990s—to find out which architectural styles have been most popular with Pacific Northwest buyers over the last ten years.

Craftsman – 111,207 Homes Sold

The Pacific Northwest’s top choice. Craftsman homes are beloved for their character: low-pitched gabled roofs, deep eaves, wide porches framed by tapered columns, and detailed interior woodwork like built-in shelving and crown molding.

Traditional – 69,704 Homes Sold

Classic and elegant, Traditional homes feature timeless elements such as brick exteriors, covered porches, and steep rooflines—blending comfort with curb appeal.

Northwest Contemporary – 67,445 Homes Sold

This regional favorite blends architecture with nature. Expect natural wood or stone exteriors, open spaces, high wood-beamed ceilings, skylights, and large windows designed to bring in natural light.

The best of the rest! Here’s how the other architectural styles stacked up over the last 10 years from most to least popular:

Contemporary – 60,550
Contemporary homes often have natural and/or sustainable elements, an open floor plan and may be irregular in shape.

Modern – 22,645
Modern homes usually have open living spaces and clean geometric lines. These homes are often constructed using new materials such as iron, concrete, steel, and glass.

Cabin – 7,157
Cabins are usually simple in design and constructed with round logs or natural, hand-worked wood rather than cut boards. Cabins are often located in wooded or secluded areas.

Cape Cod – 7,137
Cape Cod homes are characterized by a one and a half story design with a steep, gabled roof. The upper floor is usually a finished “attic” with full-height ceilings only in the middle of the floor and sloping ceiling walls to the sides of the rooms. These homes often have a large central chimney, dormer windows and little external ornamentation.

Tudor – 3,693
Tudors have decorative half-timbering on bay windows and upper floors, and steep cross gables. They often have tall, narrow windows with small window panes. Large chimneys with decorative chimney pots are also common.

Colonial – 2,146
Colonial homes have a symmetrical, two-story design. These homes often have decorative crown molding, shutters and pillars.

Victorian – 1,856
Victorian style architecture includes decorative details such as patterned shingles, curved towers, and spindled porches.

A-Frame/Dome – 1,601
A-Frame and Dome designs carry a common thread of being outside traditional architectural. A-Frame homes have steep pitched roofs while domes are sphere-like and usually comprised of a complex network of triangles.

Spanish/Southwest – 766
Spanish or Southwest style homes are inspired by the architecture of Spain and Latin America, emphasizing their rich stylistic details. These homes often have a low-pitched roof, little or no eave overhang, a red tiled roof, a prominent arch over the front door, window, or porch, stucco wall surfaces and asymmetrical façades.

Data for all reported MLS residential sales from 2014 – 2024 in Washington state.