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Well obviously, the people that want low density housing. It's still the American dream to have a house with a yard and fence.
by jiveturkey 5y ago
Well obviously, the people that want low density housing. It's still the American dream to have a house with a yard and fence.
- cageface 5y agoI grew up in such a house and honestly now if you gave me the choice of that vs living in a nice condo in Tokyo, Bangkok or Singapore it wouldn't even be close.
- micromacrofoot 5y agoSame, I live in a small house by American standards and would willingly live in 1/4 the space if it meant I could easily move to somewhere like Tokyo.
- acdha 5y agoThere's certainly a lot of iconography around that but I think that statement is dramatically overselling the strength and universality of that image. Millions of people have chosen suburbs since that was so heavily subsidized in the post-WWII era and limited supply meant there weren't good alternatives in many cases, but I would be careful assuming that this a deep preference rather than picking the default option. In particular, I think you'd see very different responses when people were asked to choose realistic options: it's easy to say you like the idyllic image realtors promote with luxurious houses, perfect landscaping, happy kids at great schools, etc. but quite another to say you want to spend a couple hours a day stuck in an expensive car because there's almost nothing to do within walking distance, take on additional expenses (landscaping, lower density requires higher taxes for infrastructure, etc.), and otherwise live the actual suburban lifestyle for most people rather than the postcard version.