ValuyMost Americans would rather live in a big house in a car-based community than a small house in a walking-based community.
55% is just past half, and the US is pretty sprawling. I wouldn’t call my house big, or small either, but being able to walk or bus to work is something I have not compromised on since I was 20, it’s more important than a big house. Which apparently puts me in a large minority.
I feel bad for the 45% of suburbanites who would prefer to be closer to everything, we have those house farms in the exurbs here. The houses are big, but not far apart. I know several people who moved down here, bought one of those houses because they looked nice, them realized how trapped they were, but right now the price of houses in my previously very affordable neighborhood in the city has risen to eye-watering levels, and that is true for most of the areas in the city.
I mean if you live within walking/public transport distance of stuff, you don’t need a car thus you don’t need a parking (or as americans call it — the driveway) or the garage in the house, thus you don’t need as big as of a house on the ground floor which can be used by a store, restaurant or cafe instead and people can live above it. It’s a win-win for residents, store owners below, environment, urban planning and communities.
Living behind the shop or above it was my favorite location, for certain, but I think I’m in a smaller minority on that. Not in a high rise, just the shops had living space behind and above them. That was a long time ago though, since then I’ve lived in detached houses and that’s what we have now. I don’t need a car but do have one still - I was lucky, my work moved from one business district to another and landed a mile from my house. They moved to make it more accessible to more employees but coincidentally made it very close to me. The old location, if my car was in the shop, could only be reached by bus by first riding downtown then getting a ticket on a bus run by the next city over, their express bus to our city had a stop at the old office, but in one direction you had to walk across, not kidding, an eight lane state highway. At a light so there was a crosswalk but still.