9 ms·

One thing that I've never understood, is why is there a huge preference for SFH in the US, compared to other countries? Where I live, India, most people prefer

One thing that I've never understood, is why is there a huge preference for SFH in the US, compared to other countries? Where I live, India, most people prefer Apartments because of how many amenities you can get with it along with the added advantage of things like security. Seems like it is opposite in the US. Because if area is a concern, then apartments can house a lot more people compared to a row of SFH houses

daedrdev 3y ago
Its often bexaus eof zoning rules set by existing owners who dont want their neibhoood to change. Never mind that it makes little sense for single family housing only zoning to even exist in cities like SF.
_8j50 3y ago
More freedom and space. Having a back yard means you can do a lot of private outdoor activities and own larger pets and a nice playground for kids. A garage means you have a place to work on your car or other projects. I've lost cars because they were broken down and the apartmenr complex had them towed away because their polic forbids broken down cars (even just a flat tire). Apartments also mean noise issues, both being careful not to bother others and neighbors more easily disturbing you. And renting means you can get evicted easily for any number of reasons and in general, you end up moving every few years which makes it difficult to raise a family. Once you own a home and pay it off, you can work less or even stop working. You can even run a business out of it. You hear about tech companies like google or microsoft that were started in garages, most americans don't have those. The quality of life, especially for raising kids is much better with SFH.
- fragmede 3y ago
  Apartments meaning noise issues is an issue of the American implementation of capitalism resulting in construction that doesn't prioritize how nice it is to actually live there. Similar to how the users of a product aren't the ones paying for it. Eg Microsoft Teams. If the incentives were different, the housing would be better constructed and not have noise issues.
  - _8j50 3y ago
    I can't imagine a construction where people arguing at max volume or having a loud party at 2am would be insulated for their immediate neighbors. Apartment construction materials vary by state too FYI.
    - fragmede 3y ago
      how about 6 inches or more of concrete? It's very possible to not hear your neighbors having a party, we just don't regulate for noise pollution.
Pikamander2 3y ago
> why is there a huge preference for SFH in the US Single family homes are typically more spacious than apartments, come with a yard and driveway, have less noise polution from the neighbors, and are often located in lower-crime areas than dense apartments. Most importantly, owning your home in full means that you're not paying a landlord each month and it can also be passed down to your children. > most people prefer Apartments because of how many amenities you can get Some single family neighborhoods have a homeowner's association (HOA) that maintains a community clubhouse with stuff like a swimming pool and tennis courts. A bad HOA can be obnoxious, but in many cities you can choose whether to buy a home in a HOA or non-HOA neighborhood. > apartments can house a lot more people compared to a row of SFH houses Correct; Dense apartments and condos are far more space-efficient than single family housing, and suburban sprawl creates a lot of problems like car dependency. Understandably though, for the reasons mentioned above, most people would prefer to live in a SFH if they're able to. I'm not really sure what the ideal apartment:SFH ratio would look like, but practically speaking to bring housing costs down we probably need to focus on rapidly building large amounts of dense apartments in high-demand cities like San Fransisco that have failed to permit anywhere near enough new housing to meet demand.
- avar 3y ago
  > Most importantly, owning your home in full means that you're not paying landlord each month and it can also be passed down to your children. You can own an apartment in full and not pay a landlord. You can even own the land the apartment is standing on[1]. I don't know if that exists in the US, but legally that's how it's managed in some of Europe (The Netherlands at least). What you will have to pay indefinitely is a membership fee for a housing association, which owns the common parts of the building (stairwell etc.). That's still going to be way less than the costs of maintaining a yard, driveway etc. 1. The other owners of apartments in the same vertical stratum can also "own" it. It's a legal mechanism that essentially comes down to forms of property tax.
  - em500 3y ago
    In apartments/condos, the owner association doesn't own just the common parts but the entire building and sometimes the land underneath (sometimes the land is leased). You buy shares in the association, which comes with exclusive right of use of a designated subunit of the building. But the legal entity that owns the building (including your subunit) is the association rather than yourself. In the end, all property ownership rights are legal fictions and abstractions, even for American SFH where you pay yearly property tax to keep using the house/land that you "own".
ponector 3y ago
In Europe people live in tiny apartments, 40-75 square meters and SFH is out of reach for regular people, like a Porsche car.
- dagw 3y ago
  I'd argue that people live in small apartments because they like living centrally and dislike long commutes more than Americans. Certainly in the part of Europe where I live, a SFH in a not very popular suburbs with a long commute is a lot cheaper than buying a nice apartment down town.
  - fragmede 3y ago
    I'd argue that also has a lot to do with what's available. If you go to a restaurant and they don't offer a salad, you can't get a salad unless you go to a different restaurant/region. And also the quality of it. If the burgers at the restaurant are better than the salads, why would you pick a salad. Unfortunately, city living comes with a lot of downsides (as well as upsides) but those downsides are less well managed in the US, making it culturally a different decision to live in a city vs a SFH. Americans have been sold a story that a SFH with a yard is what it means to be successful so that's what they want. Lawns are a luxury good like BMWs, and who am I to say people shouldn't be allowed to buy what they want with their money. The various rules and regulations and culture also come into play here as well. City living in the EU is better living than city living in the US, making that even more desirable.
fragmede 3y ago
Because American apartments are so shittily constructed that SFH is the only way to get better living conditions (note: not actually better constructed housing, just better living conditions, except for the commute.) Even if you don't mind living that densely aka don't need/want the luxury of a lawn, it's impossible to ignore the neighbors if the building is so shittily constructed that you can hear your neighbors coughing at night.

daedrdev 3y ago

Its often bexaus eof zoning rules set by existing owners who dont want their neibhoood to change. Never mind that it makes little sense for single family housing only zoning to even exist in cities like SF.

_8j50 3y ago

More freedom and space. Having a back yard means you can do a lot of private outdoor activities and own larger pets and a nice playground for kids. A garage means you have a place to work on your car or other projects. I've lost cars because they were broken down and the apartmenr complex had them towed away because their polic forbids broken down cars (even just a flat tire). Apartments also mean noise issues, both being careful not to bother others and neighbors more easily disturbing you. And renting means you can get evicted easily for any number of reasons and in general, you end up moving every few years which makes it difficult to raise a family. Once you own a home and pay it off, you can work less or even stop working. You can even run a business out of it. You hear about tech companies like google or microsoft that were started in garages, most americans don't have those. The quality of life, especially for raising kids is much better with SFH.

fragmede 3y ago
Apartments meaning noise issues is an issue of the American implementation of capitalism resulting in construction that doesn't prioritize how nice it is to actually live there. Similar to how the users of a product aren't the ones paying for it. Eg Microsoft Teams. If the incentives were different, the housing would be better constructed and not have noise issues.
- _8j50 3y ago
  I can't imagine a construction where people arguing at max volume or having a loud party at 2am would be insulated for their immediate neighbors. Apartment construction materials vary by state too FYI.
  - fragmede 3y ago
    how about 6 inches or more of concrete? It's very possible to not hear your neighbors having a party, we just don't regulate for noise pollution.

Pikamander2 3y ago

> why is there a huge preference for SFH in the US Single family homes are typically more spacious than apartments, come with a yard and driveway, have less noise polution from the neighbors, and are often located in lower-crime areas than dense apartments. Most importantly, owning your home in full means that you're not paying a landlord each month and it can also be passed down to your children. > most people prefer Apartments because of how many amenities you can get Some single family neighborhoods have a homeowner's association (HOA) that maintains a community clubhouse with stuff like a swimming pool and tennis courts. A bad HOA can be obnoxious, but in many cities you can choose whether to buy a home in a HOA or non-HOA neighborhood. > apartments can house a lot more people compared to a row of SFH houses Correct; Dense apartments and condos are far more space-efficient than single family housing, and suburban sprawl creates a lot of problems like car dependency. Understandably though, for the reasons mentioned above, most people would prefer to live in a SFH if they're able to. I'm not really sure what the ideal apartment:SFH ratio would look like, but practically speaking to bring housing costs down we probably need to focus on rapidly building large amounts of dense apartments in high-demand cities like San Fransisco that have failed to permit anywhere near enough new housing to meet demand.

avar 3y ago
> Most importantly, owning your home in full means that you're not paying landlord each month and it can also be passed down to your children. You can own an apartment in full and not pay a landlord. You can even own the land the apartment is standing on[1]. I don't know if that exists in the US, but legally that's how it's managed in some of Europe (The Netherlands at least). What you will have to pay indefinitely is a membership fee for a housing association, which owns the common parts of the building (stairwell etc.). That's still going to be way less than the costs of maintaining a yard, driveway etc. 1. The other owners of apartments in the same vertical stratum can also "own" it. It's a legal mechanism that essentially comes down to forms of property tax.
- em500 3y ago
  In apartments/condos, the owner association doesn't own just the common parts but the entire building and sometimes the land underneath (sometimes the land is leased). You buy shares in the association, which comes with exclusive right of use of a designated subunit of the building. But the legal entity that owns the building (including your subunit) is the association rather than yourself. In the end, all property ownership rights are legal fictions and abstractions, even for American SFH where you pay yearly property tax to keep using the house/land that you "own".

ponector 3y ago

In Europe people live in tiny apartments, 40-75 square meters and SFH is out of reach for regular people, like a Porsche car.

dagw 3y ago
I'd argue that people live in small apartments because they like living centrally and dislike long commutes more than Americans. Certainly in the part of Europe where I live, a SFH in a not very popular suburbs with a long commute is a lot cheaper than buying a nice apartment down town.
- fragmede 3y ago
  I'd argue that also has a lot to do with what's available. If you go to a restaurant and they don't offer a salad, you can't get a salad unless you go to a different restaurant/region. And also the quality of it. If the burgers at the restaurant are better than the salads, why would you pick a salad. Unfortunately, city living comes with a lot of downsides (as well as upsides) but those downsides are less well managed in the US, making it culturally a different decision to live in a city vs a SFH. Americans have been sold a story that a SFH with a yard is what it means to be successful so that's what they want. Lawns are a luxury good like BMWs, and who am I to say people shouldn't be allowed to buy what they want with their money. The various rules and regulations and culture also come into play here as well. City living in the EU is better living than city living in the US, making that even more desirable.

fragmede 3y ago

Because American apartments are so shittily constructed that SFH is the only way to get better living conditions (note: not actually better constructed housing, just better living conditions, except for the commute.) Even if you don't mind living that densely aka don't need/want the luxury of a lawn, it's impossible to ignore the neighbors if the building is so shittily constructed that you can hear your neighbors coughing at night.