ValuyMost Americans would rather live in a big house in a car-based community than a small house in a walking-based community.
Most people are introverts, or at least not extroverted, given the option. Small houses mean your neighbors are on top of you, you have to hear them, probably interact with them, on a near daily basis. You have to control your noise, your pet choices are limited, and you probably don’t have a yard.
Few people want that. Some people love it.
I find this ironic as an introvert. I rarely interact with any of my neighbors since it was an apartment with constantly rotating rents. My apartment complex had more people than the rural town I grew up in. City living it’s easy to be one of the faceless masses. My rural family loves to talk to and gossip about neighbors. They constantly run into people they know at the few stores they have.
It’s not that they’re close knit or require getting to know anyone. It’s that your sounds and smells are an involuntarily shared experience. You don’t have to know your neighbors to know they’re cooking fish, or having a party, or just fucking loud. And some portion of them are inconsiderate self absorbed assholes.
Your family loves to talk about the neighbors, because they have a choice, to go somewhere they can do that. It’s not something they’re forced to experience by proximity, so the opportunity is a treat.