I prefer this.

Builders prefer prefabbimg and plain lines because the cost is less without all the carving, and other special features.
Features cost on time, boosting up manhours. Builders want to get from job to job quickly.

It’s an interesting point. If I had to guess, I’d say the preference has more to do with the beige house being newer and larger. It looks like the kind of house you’d find in a subdivision of houses built just like that one. There’s less detail on the house, both in materials and in paint, which would make it faster and cheaper to produce—I imagine, anyway.

^^ Ah, @Patty_Melt just beat me to the punch!

The worst part about this beige house is that it looks like a mess, thrown together by a toddler, without any recognisable main structure.
It is an atrocity.

Also, I prefer this one

I live in the the US. Here, whether you’re renting or buying, homes rent and sell best in neutral colors (beige, white, etc). We rent now and I have no choice but to go with those colors. But you can bet there’s a lot of color in my house!

I’ve never had the opportunity to go with anything other than neutral colors, because even when we owned our home, we still had to decorate it with the plan of being able to sell it easily (hence the light walls and neutral carpeting) when the time came.

Do they really?

I have never understood style and color choices. It appears to me that advertising has a lot to do with it.

Give me Victorian over modern any day.

As for outside, dark colors absorb more heat than light colors. Generally, t’s cheaper to heat than it is to cool. For that reason, I prefer a light colored roof (which I never can get) and light walls.

Maybe because most Americans aren’t die hard fans of the Addams family.

That house looks more like what a family of Victorian goths would choose, rather than anyone else.

That home is a popular style, but does not speak of the tastes of all Americans.
Rowhouses, while put together like paper dolls, often display lots of color and individuality.
“A” frames see a lot of popularity.

I prefer Victorian over most any other style.

It’s just what’s in right now. I’m not much for the Spanish-style McMansions we have a ton of in California (though I guess they’re better than those hideous 12-peaked monstrosities you find in suburban developments in other parts of the countries). But to be honest, the Victorian doesn’t look that good to me—just looks hopelessly dated. Maybe it will come back, I don’t know.

I love Victorian houses with all of their features and their history. The trend is toward open layout. Great room with kitchen and dining area all open to each other. Victorians have doorways, pocket doors, clearly defined parlor, dining room, kitchen.

I’m always envious when I see a magazine or online feature about a couple who purchased an old Victorian very cheaply and then renovated it. My grandparents had a Victorian and I think that’s partly why I’m nostalgic for them. My grandparents’ house had a front porch, side porch, attached greenhouse, cool attic with decades of stuff in it, beautiful fireplaces, beautiful old trim, the list goes on and on.

I don’t think that it’s accurate to say that “most Americans prefer the look” of one style (that you don’t like) over some other (that you seem to prefer).

Given the astonishing variety in housing choices in the USA today, it’s impossible to say that “most” Americans prefer any single style, much less the style that you decry. Even if they live there, it doesn’t mean that they prefer it; sometimes the market is restricted in certain areas to certain styles. I recall my year in Southern California (Temecula), where the choices in single-family houses were between shades of pink and buff stucco. There were wood frame (and siding) houses, and maybe even some brick, but they weren’t being offered for sale, and I was interested in moving in quickly to be able to start work without staying in a rental or moving out of town. So I chose what was available, which was not what I wanted.

Likewise, back in the Northeast (where I belong), we have a lot of beautiful older Victorians, even “out in the woods”, where they are frequently an unexpected delight to encounter, but they’re not often on the market. The owners tend to hold onto those and keep them in the family for decades. And I surely “prefer” that look … but as a homeowner with some experience in the construction trades, I also know that they are pretty demanding, maintenance-wise. And I’m far too jealous of my free time to want to spend it painting, refitting and repairing and replacing woodwork, or worse, paying someone else to do it.

In my case, it’s more of a choice that I can afford, not what I would prefer.

Eh, most Americans have weird aesthetic tastes and senses of material value that include ideas like modern conventional homes being more desirable and neighbor-pleasing. Though plenty of Americans do also like cool old Victorian homes, even if we sadly don’t build many new ones, and do build many truly awful new houses.

I like most of the homes shown but I prefer, but can’t afford, a white, two story farmhouse with front porch on a few acres.

Have you seen most American homes? I didn’t think so. Perhaps you live in a beige neighborhood; I don’t.

HOA (home owner association) rules often dictate the colors of exterior walls. If you live there you have very few choices. I’d love to live somewhere without an HOA. Probably won’t happen.

I think most of the time it is economic, at least in the building phase. Unless you are building custom homes the amount of woodwork and trim necessary for a Victorian Style home is cost prohibitive if you are building homes on speculation. People might like and prefer all the additional attention and detailing but they are going to go for the home that is thousands cheaper.

As for the color schemes, I think @snowberry has the right take on this. For new homes we have been ingrained to believe that the neutral pallet is where you start and then people can customize their individual homes once they own them. I have know a lot of people, me included, that have repainted homes before selling them just to cover up any color that they may have added to reflect their own tastes and personality. Many time it is at the prompting of the realtor who will tell you how much more easy it will be to sell your home with a neutral taupe or white. Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that many times people cannot see past a color they do not find appealing and will pass up a home in favor of one that might not be as “perfect” for them because they cannot.

When we purchased our home last year the walls in the entry were a muddy yellow color that did not suit the style or remainder of the house. My wife and I could see what they owner was trying to do even though, in our opinion, it was a less than resounding success. Our realtor actually apologized for it but we could see past it, knew that a coat of paint would hide it and were able to realize the potential of the entry with some minor structural modifications and a new coat of paint on both the walls and trim.

DominicY, wow, that picture. I have never seen anything more ugly. That is nauseating. The architect is a shame of humanity.