Villager house

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A villager's home in Animal Crossing: City Folk

In the Animal Crossing series, in addition to player houses, villagers each also possess their own house. They usually move onto signposts around town, except in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, where they can move in anywhere where there is sufficient space, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, where they move into plots placed manually by the player. Each house differs in appearance slightly and is furnished differently. When a villager moves out, their house will vanish from town, leaving behind a signpost and/or a patch of bare ground.

Houses owned by villagers are always 6x6 in size, and usually cannot be entered by the player unless the villager is inside, with a few exceptions, such as Toy Day in Animal Crossing: City Folk (where Jingle could be inside an empty villager's home).

Designing villager houses is the main element of the spin-off game, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, although facilities such as a school can be designed as well.

In New Horizons, the two villagers that move to the Deserted Island with the player at the start of the game will each initially live in a tent. The player can either recommend the villager to place the tent where they are thinking of putting it, or they can freely choose where these tents are placed via a kit that the villager gives them. The villagers will reward the player for helping them, regardless of which option they choose. Once certain conditions are met, these two villagers will upgrade their tents into houses, having paid their initial getaway package fee of 5,000 Nook Miles much like the player.

Functions

Players can interact with some objects in villager houses, such as musical instruments. If the player opens a storage unit, a message will be displayed, usually about how cluttered the villager's drawers are.

Birthday parties and Flea Markets take place in villager houses, and in the former instance another villager will be present. In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, another animal can sometimes be present even not on the villager's birthday.

In Animal Crossing: City Folk, an animal may lose the key to their house. The player can find it by fishing in the river, and return it to the villager for a reward. The villager will never be permanently locked out, though, even if the player does not help.

Villagers sometimes invite the player over to their house, and the appointment time (chosen by the player) must be at least 30 minutes into the future. The player can sometimes buy an item from the animal.

Exteriors

A villager house in Animal Crossing: New Leaf

In most towns, different exterior house designs can appear, which is chosen specifically for every villager and is not random. In Animal Crossing: City Folk, for example, there are three house styles that appear in all versions of the game and two exclusive ones for each region. A player's town will never contain more that two of these styles (out of a possible five). Shapes of housing, fencing, and roofing colors appear to be determined by the specific villager.

In Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, each villager has a unique design of home, although many of these look quite similar.

In Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, the player may customize the exterior of each villager's home and its surrounding area.

Interiors

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The interior of Goose's house in Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Villager houses are always 6x6 in size and, with the exception of the two starting villagers' tents upgrading to houses in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, never expand, unlike the player's home. Each villager starts with different furniture, but this changes over time, such as when the player mails them new items or when the villager (or a player) buys items at the Flea Market. Wallpaper and carpeting may change if the player sends a letter to a villager with one of these attached as a gift.