> The vast majority of home buyers want single family homes.
The vast majority of home buyers have a quality of life they want to achieve at a given price point, and SFHs as built in America fulfill the requirements (other than costs) better than the MFH that gets built.
Moved out of a townhome into my current house when we had a kid, I actually looked at quite a few condos and townhomes first but multi-family housing in America is, ironically, not built for families.
The townhome community I had live din actually had a lot of families in it, but my particular unit was not conducive to family life.
The complex had 2 yards, one huge field for hosting parties complete with a fireplace, lots of tables and chairs, and bathrooms right off the court yard. Kids are playing together outside all the time! The other smaller grass patch was for people with dogs to take them out.
After moving into a house, my yard is now smaller than what I had before, go figure. Also there are fewer kids running around on my block than at the complex I moved out of.
Unfortunately those nice lifestyle complexes aren't being built anymore, instead what you get is 8 or 12 narrow townhomes scrunched up together with the government required minimum amount of greenery outside.
IMHO the 4 story town homes that are being built all over the place are foolish on many fronts. They aren't good for babies (stairs) they aren't good for anyone over 50 (stairs) and they waste a ton square footage (on all the stairs).
But if I could buy a 3 (+ den) or 4 bedroom flat in a large complex that had huge green spaces and places for activities? Sure! The QoL of living in a well managed complex is better than doing all the home owner stuff myself, and it turns out when services are being ordered for 100 households (window cleaning, pressure washing, deck cleaning, etc) you can get some good group discounts!
The large complexes that I do see being built around my city (Seattle) are all rental units, which has a ton of down sides - bad for the local economy, money doesn't stay in the community, residents don't build value in their house, prices go up dramatically year over year, etc.
The vast majority of home buyers have a quality of life they want to achieve at a given price point, and SFHs as built in America fulfill the requirements (other than costs) better than the MFH that gets built.
Moved out of a townhome into my current house when we had a kid, I actually looked at quite a few condos and townhomes first but multi-family housing in America is, ironically, not built for families.
The townhome community I had live din actually had a lot of families in it, but my particular unit was not conducive to family life.
The complex had 2 yards, one huge field for hosting parties complete with a fireplace, lots of tables and chairs, and bathrooms right off the court yard. Kids are playing together outside all the time! The other smaller grass patch was for people with dogs to take them out.
After moving into a house, my yard is now smaller than what I had before, go figure. Also there are fewer kids running around on my block than at the complex I moved out of.
Unfortunately those nice lifestyle complexes aren't being built anymore, instead what you get is 8 or 12 narrow townhomes scrunched up together with the government required minimum amount of greenery outside.
IMHO the 4 story town homes that are being built all over the place are foolish on many fronts. They aren't good for babies (stairs) they aren't good for anyone over 50 (stairs) and they waste a ton square footage (on all the stairs).
But if I could buy a 3 (+ den) or 4 bedroom flat in a large complex that had huge green spaces and places for activities? Sure! The QoL of living in a well managed complex is better than doing all the home owner stuff myself, and it turns out when services are being ordered for 100 households (window cleaning, pressure washing, deck cleaning, etc) you can get some good group discounts!
The large complexes that I do see being built around my city (Seattle) are all rental units, which has a ton of down sides - bad for the local economy, money doesn't stay in the community, residents don't build value in their house, prices go up dramatically year over year, etc.