I desperately wanted to downsize to a condo when we moved but we only found one unit that had the size and view we wanted and it sold before we were ready. Nothing else came on the market. We did technically downsize but not enough IMO and into a single family home.
Oh, if there is that stairway up and down, that is just a split entry. The least desirable home style here… those sell much slower than a typical 2-story or a rambler.
FWIW, in our raised ranch house, there are no stairs down. You enter on the bottom floor when you come in the front door. There is a full flight of stairs to get up to the main living area. There is no split foyer, but otherwise I think the basic design in the same.
We used to live in a house like that and it was called a bi-level. Front door goes straight outside downstairs, back door goes straight outside upstairs, so of course it was built into a hill. We liked it.
Here we call them split levels. Some people really like them. Though they can be harder to sell than a 2-story colonial or ranch.
Want a House Like This? Prepare for a Bidding War With Investors
As investors increasingly buy up starter homes, they are reshaping the real estate market around the country, and driving up prices for everyone else.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/20/business/economy/starter-homes-investors.html
My husband calls split entries “a house that can’t decide if it is a ranch or a two story.” 
What alwaysamom describes as a raised ranch is exactly what it is where I live. These are the least popular home styles here and the hardest to sell. There are relatively very few in my town, but other suburbs have whole developments of them.
I love, love, love McMansion Hell. Whenever I can’t take what is going on in the world for another second, I head right over. Always makes me LOL!
Here in NJ we have tons of names of types of houses.
A raised ranch wouldn’t necessarily have a finished downstairs.
A bilevel would have a entrance with a choice to go up or down when you come in with most of the living space upstairs and downstairs having garage, possible in-law apartment or family room.
A split level will have the bedrooms up, the living, kitchen dining room down 6 stairs, and then another 6 stairs down to a family room or garage. Below the living room level would be a basement 6 stairs down from the family room. In a split you can either enter to the living room floor or be presented with stairs when you come in to choose the living room up or family room down.
A dipsy doodle split (love that name), would have you enter at the level with a kitchen, family room and then the living room and dining room is up 6 steps and the bedrooms are up another 6 steps.
I remember when we bought our first house - a small ranch, some relatives from Scotland visited and said it was a cottage.
A split level is different tons a raised ranch.
In a raised ranch…the lower level is garage,etc. When you enter through the front door, you usually go up stairs to the front door, and you are on the living area where the LR, DT, Kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms are located. There are steps down to lower level that has garage and family room area.
A split level. You enter the front door on the main level. There usually is a living room, DR, kitchen and sometimes half bath on that level. There are six steps UP to the bedroom and full bath areas, and six steps down to the family room and/or garage. So…when you are looking at the house from the outside, one side looks like two floors (the bedrooms upper and the garage/family room lower), and one side looks like one floor (LR, DR, Kitchen).
Big houses still sell in my community (Northern VA, DC suburb, inside the beltway). We see a lot of developers buying houses, tearing them down and putting up something that fills the lot and sells for 1.2-1.4 million
That’s what I thought too @thumper1. We always called my childhood home a raised ranch. Front door let into an entry way and there was a 1/2 flight up to the main living area - kitchen, LR, DR, and bedrooms, or 1/2 flight down to the family room, laundry room, another bedroom/bath, and the access to the garage.
If anyone wants a IRL McMansion fix, just drive through some areas of Bellevue, WA (Medina, Clyde Hill, etc.). There are many, many new ones to look at! All built with the most demanding Chinese multi-millionaire buyer in mind. Those and the ugly boxes. No one seems to build anything aesthetically pleasing these days around here.
@jmmnv06, my parents’ house that is probably a teardown will sell for that much. I wonder how much the new house will cost!
I once had a realtor tell me that once you live in a split foyer (main entry gives you two choices - half flight up to main living area and bedrooms, half flight down to garage and family room), you’ll never live in one again. My friend married a man who already owned one of these. She complained about having to unload the groceries up a full flight of stairs. She’s still living there after 40 years, so I guess she got used to it.
This is a good article with description of raised ranch and a video of what the look like like on outside.
I never thought I would live in a split, but I do and love it, although it is considered a colonial split as the upstairs are separate form the stairs to the lower level. We added a family room open to the kitchen on the main level so it works well as there are only four steps up to two bedrooms and then a longer stair case up to the other two. The old family room is down a flight of stairs and is really now an office/kids room.
Splits are popular here. The selling price really depends on the size and style. A larger split with an open concept kitchen/family room plus dining and living room, and a master suite can sell for as much as a similarly sized colonial. Ranches are not common and bilevels seems to be less popular.
This is the kind of bi-level I lived in. It was not a split level or split foyer. You need a hill to make it work.
https://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_bi_level_and_split_level_houses
@greenwitch that link took me to an article on all the different kinds of multilevel houses…was there supposed to be a picture?
This is a classic PNW split entry:
Not to be confused with a tri-level home.