A single-family detached home, or single-family home or detached house for short, also variously known as a single-detached dwelling or separate house (see below), is a free-standing residential building. Most single-family homes are built on lots larger than the structure itself, adding an area surrounding the house, which is commonly called a yard in North American English or a garden in British English. Garages can also be found on most lots. In older homes, they are typically detached, standing as a separate building, either near a driveway or facing an alley in urban areas. Newer homes in North America favor attached garages, often facing the street, as most recent developments do not include alleys.

Typically only members of a single family live in this type of house, yet in the wider sense it refers to a single party of people. The counterparts to single-family homes are apartment complexes, condominiums, duplexes, semi-detached houses, or townhomes/terrace houses, where several families live in the same structure.

There are advantages and disadvantages to single-detached homes. Advantages are that the entire space around the building is private to the owner and family, in most cases (depending on federal, state/provincial and local laws) you can add on to the existing house if more room is needed and there are generally no property management fees such as the ones associated with condominiums and townhomes.

There are also many disadvantages to owning a single-family detached home. All maintenance and repair costs—interior, exterior and everything in between—are at the owner's expense. There is often a lack of amenities such as pools and playgrounds (although some single-detached homes do have these features within the lot or nearby, their owners are commonly required to pay a homeowners fee as those in condos or townhomes). Landscaping and lawn upkeep costs are at the owner's expense.

Large, inner city neighborhoods are so densely populated that there is generally not room for houses devoted to just a single family. Yet the outer districts of larger cities are usually transitional areas with equal shares of smaller apartment buildings and single-detached homes. Among the wealthy industrialized nations, single-detached homes are most common in the United States, Canada, Australia, Northern Europe and New Zealand.