seems clear enough... so what do you call a Raised Ranch with 3 levels?... and nice tan by the way :)

Lots of confusion around that.

Apparently, a raised ranch is a house that you have to go up a bunch of exterior front stairs and you enter the second floor. To get to the lower level, which may be partially below grade, you go down a full staircase just like in a regular ranch.

A split entry style home sometimes called a bi-level, has a bunch of exterior front stairs and has a small entry foyer with an immediate set of stairs to go half a story up to the living room/kitchen/bedroom area, or go half a story down to the lower level which is typically partially below grade.

Either way, you're going up and down stairs a lot. You save money because you don't have to join a gym or buy a stairmaster.

The explanation may be regional...we don't have those terms in my areas.  Raised foundation or slab are the common descriptions.  

People use them interchangeably.  I like your visual though, that's how I think of them

It's about 5 steps up or 5 steps down give or take a few.

Unless you're on the lake, we don't have a lot of raised ranches here in Charlotte proper - and the split entries either but, we do have split levels (aka tri-levels).

This is good information to share with prospective home buyers.

You learn something new every day.

I don't really know... in my market we do not have what you referred to as a raised ranch. And our split entry are probably what we call split foyer.

We don't have these styles of homes in Austin but I remember growing up we did..nice explanation because they are different.

Interesting question. In Oklahoma a ranch style is considered a single story home. We live in one on a 100 foot wide lot. The typical construction had load bearing walls all on the outside ones.

 I think we call that a tri-level house.

Barbara,

Not ones we normally see in our area of California.  We owned a ranch house in Los Angeles with a raised foundation for easy access to plumbing, etc.  A

Merry Christmass Barbara Todaro who knows the answer. I agree with her

The one on the left would be a MUCH harder sell out here.  We also don't have basements, so the one on the right would enter on the main floor.  Beyond that, couldn't tell you the difference.

Thank you Barbara!

Barbara Todaro In my area they are called a Split Foyer. I haven't seen the term Raised Ranch used here.

Thanks for the clarification. More familiar with the split entry!

Not a lot of these down here in FL.

Placement of the stairs - RR you have to decide what you're gonna do right away, either up or down.  Splits here have a larger foyer where only the famrm is 6 stairs down.

In our area the #1 picture is called a raised ranch, I don't even know what the hell #2 is. 

Interesting

In my area, a ranch home wouldn't be more than one story or level. But veddy eeenteresting! 😉

raised ranch has 2 levels and almost no storage!

Thank you.

Thanks for the lesson.

Erie area has both styles, but I prefer typical ranch with a full basement or two-story with basement.

Split entry homes are the biggest seller in my area.  Cost is one of the reasons.

I sorta remember that from my days back in New England. Those styles are very rare in my area.

We call the raised ranch a reverse basement and the split foyer style has the front door entering a foyer area between the two floors.

Raisin bread and ranch dressing?  Sorry ... it's been a long day. Up at 4am and it is now approaching 9pm.  Another one tomorrow. I get loopy. 

I once lived in a split entry home.  The first floor was a daylight basement with rather short windows that were at ground level.  The lot had a very gradual slope toward the rear yard.

I see both in Wisconsin ... everyone has a preference!

Thank you for the explanation, we mostly have one story homes and the two or three story ones are called just that!

In my experience, the raised ranch is typically the one on the left...

We do seem to have alot of split entries and a fair share of raised ranches here in NH too Barbara Todaro 

Good job of pointing this out teach!

I hate split entry. I don''t like walking in the door and being faced with a decision!

We have a lot of both of those here.  I'm really not crazy about those.  First, the entry is usually cold - both physically and emotionally (it's just not welcoming).  Second, many of those homes have asbestos on bottom floor level.

We grew up in a split level...but the entry is different...you walk into main level (which has hardwood and kitchen, so warm/inviting.  then you can go up 1/2 level to bedrooms and down 1/2 to den (and then basement below).  I see a lot of this type in my area as well.