The reason you can't afford a 4 bedroom apartment when you can afford a HOUSE is that large apartments are rare in American cities, because municipal government

The reason you can't afford a 4 bedroom apartment when you can afford a HOUSE is that large apartments are rare in American cities, because municipal governments do everything to prevent them from being built. The few that exist were built mostly before WW2, and are rented to students. In other countries, large apartments are plentiful, and they are cheaper than houses the same size, because of economies of scale.