> Unless and until soundproofing gets better -- and I mean a LOT better -- apartments will never be practical for a nontrivial percentage of the population, as

> Unless and until soundproofing gets better -- and I mean a LOT better -- apartments will never be practical for a nontrivial percentage of the population, as much as we might otherwise prefer them. Most likely never going to happen, at least not in the US where apartment buildings are basically wooden matchboxes. I grew up in the well-known gray communist concrete blocks in Eastern Europe and I never heard my upstairs neighbors peeing until I moved to the USA.