Here's a link if you don't know what I mean by "textured ceiling"

Here is a link that might be useful: Drywall textures

Texturing (on walls or ceilings) helps hide defects such as ripply sheetrock, imperfectly taped and floated seams, etc. It's hard enough to get perfectly smooth, flat walls. But getting a perfectly smooth flat ceiling is even more difficult and requires a degree of skill that many builders simply don't have. And since ceilings are typically well lighted and have no furniture throwing shadows any shadows, even subtle variations can be very noticeable. Texturing hides those flaws by giving your eye something else to focus on.

Is a textured ceiling an upgrade? Not in my opinion. If you can find someone with the skill to do a smooth ceiling RIGHT, then that would be what I would want. But if everyone textures ceilings where you're building, then it is probable that no one in the area with the expertise to do smooth ceilings and get them right. In that case, you're probably better off with textured ceilings than untextured ones with lots of visible flaws.

Textured ceilings are standard on subdivision homes for the reasons noted above.

I'm sure even such a primitive backwoods as Minnesota harbours a few tradespeople capable of doing Level 4 or 5 drywall finish.

Here is a link that might be useful: Levels of Drywall Finish

Stick with smooth drywall (or veneer plaster (blueboard) if it is offered in your area). Texture is definitely not an upgrade.

I am in Iowa and this is definitely a regional thing. I also prefer the look of a smooth ceiling, but it is something that is just not done around here. You will see the same "knockdown" ceiling texture on everything from 1 million dollar plus show homes, to builder spec homes. A true plaster job has not been done on any type of new construction (and is extremely rare in remodels) for the past few decades.

Must be regional. Here in PA, I have only seen it in older homes. It really doesn't look good, to me. Seems like a good place for cobwebs, and dust to settle.

In PA, you could know who plastered the ceiling by the pattern of the texture. The plasterers had their own distinct style!

A textured ceiling collects no more cobwebs than a non-textured one... and dust does not settle 'up'.

Textured ceilings...yuck!

Certainly not an upgrade, and something most buyers try to get rid of ASAP as it just spells "tract construction".

At this very moment I am sitting in a basement in a townhouse in Minnesota...with a smooth drywall ceiling. The townhouse is about 15 years old and I can see the seams where the sheets of drywall meet and the texture isn't 100% perfect. In a perfect world, we would have smooth cove ceilings with a rope plaster trim just below the cove (like the 1920s sorority house I lived in during college), but wasn't willing to pay the premium and settled on the builder's standard knock-down ceilings (not popcorn--yuck).

minneapolisite-- to me "knock down" is a texture, actually I haven't figured out how to distinguish between knock-down and "orange peel". I want my ceilings to be as smooth as a wall.

Aside from my personal preference for smooth ceilings, I'd like a ceiling I could paint with confidence (textured ceiling can fall off when you paint them, and then you need to hire someone to repair the damage).

Wait... I think we have to be talking about two different things here!

The textured ceilings I am talking about could never "fall off when you paint them"... ever.
And the houses I am talking about are not "tract construction" either.

Now I'm confused....

zone4newby, I think you're not understanding what I wrote. The ceiling of this basement that I am sitting in is technically "smooth." But it has a "texture" because the seams aren't very well done.

zone4newby/LuAnn: POPCORN ceiling texture can fall off when you paint it. KNOCK-DOWN does not. I also have no idea what orange peal is. :P