Enter teh brave new world of the million-dollar-and-up townhouse, the newest level of luxury to which many of those with means may now aspire. The sales prices on some of these elegant new units have even exceeded $2 million.

Not that long ago, "townhouse" was a downscale word. In some circles, its very presence seemed to threaten property values, and status-consious suburbanites implored officials to bar such attrached living, or at least limit its appeal...The big, detached, single-family house was th embodiment of suburban prosperity...But that was so, well, last century....