alt Hacker NewsSure, that's your personal preference and to each their own. The market speaks otherwise. Detached homes are the most desirable section of the real estate market based on consumer surveys, see the greatest growth in value compared to other real estate over the medium to long term and are basically recession proof. Even in the financial crisis of 2008-2009, the average loss was 10-15% in market value, which was recouped over the next five years.
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The market shows we do not have enough housing first and foremost. Many people care most of all about the cost, which is why people live in terrible buildings, so denser housing which can lower housing costs is the only real solution to increasingly unaffordable housing. Real estate is recession proof because we have effectively banned new housing which creates a massive rent seeking wealth transfer to those holding onto land simply by being there first
Single family homes have more sqft, so of course there is a higher price ceiling! That’s…very intuitive. There’s also less of them, because they take up so much space, so…doesn’t surprise me that they would be more at a “premium”. Assuming it’s in a desirable location.
One more thing to consider - no U.S. city has “excellent” infrastructure so it’s difficult to know what the demand would be like if that kind of city existed in the US. NYC doesn’t count, the subway is good by US standards but it’s junk compared to asia standards. Slow, loud, disgusting, lots of delays and maintenance on weekends.
For example how much would a nice apartment in manhattan be worth if i could easily hop on a bullet train and be in the Hamptons on Long Island within 50 minutes? Or in Mystic Connecticut within 45 minutes?? Suddenly commuting from the suburbs daily, so i can relax in nature on the weekends loses its appeal. Just one example.
With that said it’s good the market offers different housing “products” based on personal preference or life-stage (young, kids, older, etc)
The only consumer survey they actually reveals preferences is the price that people are willing to pay. Ask them questions in isolation and you miss all the implicit tradeoffs inherent to the questions.
And on that front, prices in dense areas are way way above suburban areas. Even if you subtract the lawn. People will pay far far more per sqft for a home in a dense urban area without a lawn! Which indicates that dense living is far undersupplied.
Not coincidentally, we don't have to ban suburban living, we only ban dense living. Literally anybody could buy an apartment building, tear it down and build a single family home, but how often do you ever see that happen? But you can't go the other direction, by law.