I think it would be a good idea to make the Townhouse cost something else than 6x Glass Pane because you only build house when you got enough resource and space for it.
Im new to the game so I dont know what all is about but I can tell from what I experienced in the game till now the things that seemed weird to me. And this is one thing I dont understand and that I think should be changed because it make no sense. So here is what I mean.
The pilgrim hovel you can build very early for almost no cost.
For the farmer house you need nails and boards so you gotta wait till you got some silver or can make metal and timber piles.
But the Townhouse and the Brick Townhouse are only blocked access to with the glass panes.
When I am able to produce glass I will always build the Brick Townhouse instead of the Townhouse because it is more useful in the long run. You don't have to upgrade it to Brick Townhouse later when you have access to all the materials. Just get more silver and more glass pane and the Brick Townhouse can be build to skip the Townhouse easy.
So there is no reason to build Townhouse and many people will just skip it I think. When I need house that takes fewer place but is big I can build Farmerhouse and Hovel for low cost and if I need big space I can build Brick Townhouse.
That why my suggestion is change cost of Townhouse from:
Planed Board x15
Dry Board x35
Nails x25
Brick x10
Glass Pane x6
...to:
Oiled Board x5
Planed Board x30
Dry Board x70
Nails x50
Brick x10
You can create oiled board earlier than glass pane but is hard and costly for new player to make a lot of planed board successfully because they always break. And 50 nail double the cost from the metals/silver so it is still very expensive house but at least then you have reason to think: hmm maybe I should make Townhouse first before I make Brick townhouse because it will still be some time before i can make wrought and glass. Or maybe make Brick Townhouse cost more than just 12x glass pane maybe x1 Blistersteel too?