People shopping for new, more spacious single-family houses where they can hunker down during the pandemic may be overlooking places that meet most, if not all, of their needs: town houses and condominiums.

The newest breed of town houses and apartments check all the boxes for riding out the virus -- and beyond. Indeed, many seem to be designed especially for the pandemic, but often at a more affordable price and in a more walkable location than detached houses in the far-out suburbs.

Yes, these attached homes normally are somewhat smaller than their stand-alone brethren. But today’s plans often include dedicated home offices, separate spaces for home-schooling, and dual master suites -- handy for extended families, or if someone must be quarantined.

Some have kitchens with expansive islands for cooking, crafting and gathering, and walk-in pantries for stocking up on essentials. Some even come with finished basements for whatever the need may be -- lounges, bonus rooms or play areas for the little ones -- and private, fenced-in backyards for safe outdoor activities.

According to the Census Bureau, town house construction has slowed a bit as demand has shifted to more suburban and exurban locations, where land tends to be less expensive. Over the last four quarters, single-family attached dwellings accounted for 106,000 construction starts, which is 6% fewer than in the previous four quarters.

Still, Robert Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, believes the town house share of the market will trend higher in the coming years. Given the growing number of buyers looking for medium-density neighborhoods, such as urban villages with walkable environments and other amenities (as opposed to high-density spots that depend on mass transit and elevators), Dietz says the “long-run prospects” for town houses “remain positive.”

Attached single-family houses have long been touted as great alternatives to more expensive detached dwellings, especially for first-time buyers moving out of apartments or their parents’ basements. But now, in their effort to compete with detached houses in the age of COVID-19, some town house builders are designing bigger and better than ever.

They may or may not be any less expensive, but they tend to be closer to city centers than detached homes in the way-out-there suburban fringes. Cases in point: Two projects by Chicago-based Lexington Homes -- one in Arlington Heights in the city’s northwestern suburbs and the other in Warrenville, almost due west. Both have all the functionality and style of detached houses -- and at different price points.

They offer “open concept” floor plans, spacious kitchens with large islands, and master baths with seats in the showers and separate water closets. They have finished lower levels, unfinished basements, private balconies and small, yet functional, backyards. They also have multiple home office/workspaces, which today’s buyers say they want. And some layouts offer dens and computer niches at the top of the staircase landing, supplying families the options they may need for remote learning and working.

Neither project is considered close-in, one longtime local told me, but Arlington Heights is still in Cook County, same as Chicago. The Lexington Heritage property there features two collections: one with two- and three-bedroom, two-story models, each with two-car garages and up to 3 1/2 baths. This grouping ranges in size from 1,650 to 1,950 square feet. Homes in the other series contain three-level units with two or three bedrooms, attached garages and up to 3 1/2 baths, and run from 1,813 to 1,976 square feet.

Though still in the nine-county Chicago metro region, Warrenville is “pretty far out” at the western end of DuPage County, my resident geographer said. But the units there measure almost 2,000 square feet, with either front- or rear-loading garages. And starting at just under $300,000, prices there are much less than in Arlington Heights, where the starting price is $438,000. (As a reference, the median resale price in Chicagoland in July was $277,000.)

No longer a basic two-bedroom, two-bath cube, some condominiums are evolving, too. Some now even offer multiple floors.

Let’s look again at Chicago, where the CA6 West Loop project by the Belgravia Group offers four-bedroom duplexes. These two-story units feature dedicated office spaces, flex rooms to accommodate multiple uses, and outsized 700-square-foot private terraces that can hold a trampoline or an inflatable pool.

These units range in size from 3,100 to 3,157 square feet with four bedrooms, 3.5 baths and a backyard. But starting at $1.65 million, the prices here are not for the typical buyer.

Prices are somewhat more modest at 7180 Optima Kierland, a new 12-story tower in Scottsdale, Arizona: The tower’s one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, as well as penthouses, start at $500,000 and run up to more than $2 million. The median resale price in the Phoenix area was $315,000 in July.

Also starting at $500,000, the units at the Venue condo in Old Town Alexandria across the Potomac from Washington, D.C., range up to 2,300 square feet with one to three bedrooms, plus a den.

When it comes to credit scores, low-income folks have far less knowledge, according to the results of a recent quiz developed by the Consumer Federation of America and VantageScore. But even high-income respondents didn’t have all the answers.

These days, everyone from your local utility to your cellphone carrier bases decisions on credit scores, at least in part. But they are particularly key for mortgage lenders.

The difference between a high score and a low one can mean the difference between being approved or rejected for financing. And even if you do pass muster, borrowers with lower scores will usually pay more than those with higher ones.

Says the CFA’s Steve Brobeck, “A lack of knowledge could be costly.”

Test your understanding by taking this shortened version of the CFA-VS quiz. The answers follow.

QUESTIONS

1. Which of the following does a credit score mainly indicate? A. Knowledge of consumer credit. B. Attitude toward consumer credit. C. Amount of consumer debt. D. Risk of not repaying the loan. E. Financial resources to pay back the loan.

2. Which of these groupings contains the three factors that are all used to calculate a credit score? A. A person’s age, missed loan payments and marital status. B. Missed loan payments, high balances on credit cards and ethnic origin. C. Marital status, high balances and personal bankruptcy. D. A person’s age, high balances and ethnic origin. E. Missed loan payments, high balances and bankruptcy.

3. Who collects the information on which credit scores are most frequently based? A. FICO and VantageScore Solutions. B. Three main credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. C. Individual lenders. D. The federal government. E. All of the above.

4. Does each consumer have just one credit score? A. Yes. B. No.

5. Which of the following is usually a good generic credit score? A. 400. B. 500. C. 600. D. 700.

6. When are lenders required to inform borrowers of the score used in their decisions? A. After a consumer applies for a mortgage. B. On all consumer loans, when you don’t receive the best terms and rates. C. Whenever you are turned down. D. All of these. E. None of these.

7. Which of the following helps raise a low score or maintain a high one? A. Make all loan payments on time. B. Keep credit card balances under 25% of the credit limit. C. Avoid opening several credit card accounts at the same time. D. All of these. E. None of these.

8. When will multiple inquiries about obtaining a loan lower your FICO or VantageScore credit score? A. Each time you make an inquiry. B. Only when you make at least five. C. Never, if the inquiries occur during a one- to two-week window. D. Never.

9. How important is it to check the accuracy of your credit reports? A. Very. B. Somewhat. C. Not very.

10. When you cannot resolve a complaint about your credit report or score, which of these federal agencies is best suited to help you? A. Federal Reserve Board. B. Federal Trade Commission. C. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. D. Department of Justice.

ANSWERS

1. D. Credit scores predict the probability that you will pay back a loan by analyzing your history of borrowing money and paying your bills, as summarized in your credit report. While factors such as savings and income may influence repayment risk, the models that produce scores only consider credit report contents.

2. E. Each of these three factors is closely related to the risk of not repaying a loan, whereas age, ethnicity and marital status are not.

3. B. Three major credit agencies collect the information and make it available in credit reports. FICO and VantageScore Solutions, among others, then use these reports to calculate scores.

4. B. Consumers have many credit scores. There are the generic scores developed by the three national credit bureaus, as well as scores from individual lenders and scores specific to the mortgage industry.

5. D. The most common scoring scale range is 300-850. A score of 700 or more usually indicates a low credit risk. Scores below the mid-600s often indicate some degree of risk. Those with lower scores than that are much more likely to be denied credit or charged more.

6. D. Federal law requires disclosures in all of these scenarios.

7. D. These steps will help raise a low score, though it usually takes months to turn things around. Conversely, high scores can drop considerably -- and quickly -- if even one mortgage payment is missed.

8. C. Multiple inquiries during this period are usually treated as a single inquiry.

9. A. Credit reports sometimes contain inaccurate information. The three main bureaus are required by federal law to provide a free copy of your credit report once a year upon request: Visit annualcreditreport.com or call 877-322-8228.

10. C. The CFPB helps consumers resolve many types of complaints about credit reports and credit scores.

This year has been a moving experience. For one thing, it has been mentally taxing, what with the virus and all. For another, more people than ever are switching addresses -- many as they try to get away from the maddening crowds and put down roots where life is more tranquil, if not safer.

In August, Toni Church and Marquil Jones-Walker moved from their place near downtown Wichita, Kansas, to rural Mulvane, a community of about 6,500 people about 20 miles south of the city. “We liked going downtown,” Church told me. “We’re still not too far away, but being away from people is better.”

Most of all, though, the soon-to-be married couple liked the fact that they qualified for a nothing-down mortgage from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. More on that in a moment. First, let’s look at the latest trends in moving, which include a definite shift from urban to rural areas.

That’s not to say big cities are dead; many experts believe they’ll make a comeback. But for now, homebuyers are heading out -- and out, and farther out.

For example, online networking service LinkedIn reports that between April and August, net new arrivals were down 23% in New York City, 21% in the San Francisco Bay Area and nearly 11% in Seattle. At the same time, Jacksonville, Florida, enjoyed almost an 11% gain in net arrivals, Salt Lake City scored nearly a 10% gain, and Sacramento registered a 7.6% jump.

U.S. Postal Service data shows similar trends. Change-of-address requests analyzed by Bankrate found that, for the most part, people who moved farther out still stayed in the same metropolitan areas. The most popular destination for folks leaving Houston was Katy, Texas, about 30 miles away. For those leaving Dallas in their rearview mirrors, Mesquite, Texas, about a dozen miles out, was the top terminus.

Coldwell Banker lumps movers into three groups: “Explorers” looking in the exurbs and “hidden gem” towns where they can stretch their dollars; “New Suburbanites” who seek personal space, including dual home offices, a bedroom for each child and perhaps a dose of city culture; and “Resorters” who are relocating to famous destinations to begin a whole new lifestyle.

Of course, there are other reasons to move. Many people are simply changing jobs. Others are fleeing areas prone to natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says people tend to switch employment every four years. And a recent Redfin survey found that more than 1 in 4 people want to move from their current hometowns because of a recent flood, fire or storm.

But data from Realtor.com shows more people are searching for property outside their home metros. “Urbanites,” says research analyst Sabrina Speianu, “are increasingly looking to move to suburban areas.”

(At the same time, some young adults are moving back in. Not into the city, but in -- as in, back in with their folks. Pew Research says they’re heading back to the nest at unprecedented rates: In July, 52% of young adults resided with one or both of their parents, boosting the total to 2.6 million.)

If you’re among the many who are hunkering for more wide-open spaces, you may want to consider the kind of financing Church and Jones-Walker corralled. It’s one of the few government-backed loans available solely in rural and exurban locations. And it is booming.

According to the latest figures from the USDA’s Rural Development agency, the number of loans under its single-family guaranteed loan program at the midyear mark is up 38% from the same point a year ago. And the dollar volume of those loans is up 55%.

“It’s a great program” for people who want to be outside the city limits, says Church and Jones-Walker’s loan officer, Planet Home Lending’s Michelle Crubaugh.

Actually, Rural Development offers a variety of loans, grants and loan guarantees for those who want to build, buy or improve single and multi-family properties.

Under the guaranteed loan program, the government provides a 90% guarantee to approved lenders to reduce the risk of extending 100% mortgages. But there are limits based on family size and income. Folks who have moderate incomes -- 115% of the national median -- qualify.

In the greater Boston metro area, two-, three- and four-person households earning up to $154,900 qualify. And in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida, metro, two- to four-person households making up to $90,300 make the cut.

Under the USDA’s Section 502 direct loan program, Uncle Sam makes 100% loans to applicants whose incomes are no greater than the low-income limit for their areas and are unable to obtain financing elsewhere. Generally, houses can be no more than 1,800 square feet with a market value that doesn’t exceed the applicable loan limit.

If your intent is to buy some land along with a house, you might want to consider financing from Farmer Mac, a little known government-sponsored enterprise similar to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was chartered in 1988 to increase the availability of long-term credit for ranchers, farmers and rural homebuyers.

Like Fannie and Freddie, Farmer Mac doesn’t make loans directly. Rather, it buys loans made by local lenders. And among the loans it purchases are those for part-time “hobby” farmers who just want to dabble in raising or growing almost anything.

Eligible properties must be owner-occupied, single-family detached residences, or second homes with enough acreage to support agricultural production. There are no geographic restrictions, and you can buy as much land as you like. If the property is less than five acres -- not a lot of ground in many rural markets -- you must produce at least $5,000 annually. If the land is more than five acres, there is no such restriction.