Could be a slight settlement, could be from lumber expansion/contraction, etc. Examine reveals around the doors in the vicinity of visual cracks and if any doors stick or don't close properly. If yes, have a contractor come in and check everything out.

We had major structional damage to our new home and your cracks look worrisome.

Some of our cracks on top of doors were smaller than your cracks. Actually they were hairline cracks but we had a long vertical line going down the wall like yours.

Getting our builder involved was useless since it was beyond the "1 year warranty." He basically washed his hands of the situation.

You need to contact a structional engineer to get a clear assessment.

Are you on a slab or a conventional?

If your house is on clay soil, the soil around foundation needs to be watered on regular basis. Place drip hose about 2 ft. from foundation.

Thanks @Sandy V - I don't know if we're on a slab or not. It's a long boxy modern house in the Seattle area (lots of rain), not sure if that helps?

I did some more inspection today and found some more worrying signs, see my new post here: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6069774/regular-house-settling-or-structural-issue

What turned out to be the issue with your house? How much did it end up costing to fix?

The cause of our structional damage was due to the contractor bringing in fill dirt and not compressing it. He smoothed out the dirt and built the house. Within a few years the dirt settled and half the house went with it. The piers (for support) he installed under the concrete slab did not go to solid ground. They fell out like toothpicks when the plumber dug through the side of the house.

When we were sodding the backyard the guy said we had a leak coming from bottom of house. We tore off wallpaper near sink in master bath and there was no leak but pipes were starting to pull apart.

I had an engineer (not structional) from work come out to get his advice. He said worse case scenario....every pipe under your bathroom floor is broken. Sadly he was right.

It cost about 40,000 to get all the issues fixed. Nobody took responsibility. The had to pour grout underneath the house to fill the void and all pipes had to be repaired.

Look OP, your situation could be entirely different than ours. You obviously are having settling but in order to see if it's minor or not get a structional engineer to assess your house.

@SandyV, curious whether this repair was covered under your homeowners insurance? I can't even imagine the heartache this caused!

@Amy

No, homeowner's insurance did not pay anything. That's when you find out your homeowners policy has 10 pages of exclusions.

I dealt with plumbers, engineers, grouting company, insurance and lawyers. Everybody who was responsible walked away. We were planning to sue the builder. I wrote the BBB and Attorney General of our state etc. What I found out was you can get more resolution with a new 1,000 refrigerator than a 200,000 house. Builders can walk away.

The builder did provide a 2/10 warranty to cover shoddy builder practices. I had to fight them too. They only approved the claim when the piers fell out and were not secured into solid ground. They paid a large portion but not without a fight.

More than anything it was stressful because DH traveled and I handled everything. This situation happened many years ago but I got a front seat education.

Now when we look at houses to buy any cracks in walls etc. we don't even consider buying.

That sounds like an absolute nightmare Sandy! Certainly puts some of my complaints about the way our house was built into perspective.