If you are retired or near retirement, you might not want to consider townhouses simple because most townhouses are 3 or 4 bedrooms which tend to attract families. I owned one such townhouse for a few years and hated it. It was noisy, kids sitting on cars and playing ball in the parking lot. Before buying the Condo we have now we considered a Condo consisting of duplexes with garages separating the units. There are also townhouses that minimize shared wals and there are Condos consisting of single structure villas. I have a friend who lives in high rise condo in downtown Seattle. He claims it is so well insulated that you couldn't hear a 6 piece band playing next door. However, his unit cost just over a million.
