What about people who want to be far away from everyone else? Not everyone wants the social life and to live that close to anyone else. Even if you soundproof walls, etc., you still are close to neighbors than if you had a patch of grass, dirt, etc. surrounding your house and bordering your neighbor. I love it, personally, because I can play my music a bit louder than if I shared an actual wall with them. I’m paying for this space and I want to enjoy my life inside without worrying about how it affects someone else to a larger degree. I can’t have that nearly any way with an apartment and shared walls.

We aren’t farming on our land either. What is the point of this stupid grass that needs to be maintained?

Maybe not on a grand scale to where I’m providing an income and/or food for my community, but myself and many of my neighbors and others in my region do maintain fruit and vegetable gardens and fruit trees in our backyards. I personally don’t have grass except any that grows naturally after a rain. All of the plants that I’ve chosen to grow on my property are what provides some food for me, such as an orange tree, berry bush, and various vegetable plants. With more land, I possibly could live off the land and rely much less on any store.

And despite “privacy” being a selling point, the houses are so close that you need to choose between being watched or having sunlight. If your neighbor smokes, you will as well regardless of whether you like it or not, unless you want to wear a gas mask or something. And if they throw a party with music so loud you can’t hear anything in your house even with headphones, then you’ll just need to wait until it’s over to sleep or watch TV. You better not take out trash or order food during that party, because no one will move out the way for you, and the party animals will steal your order. Unless you want to try fighting high or drunk teenagers who were playing with tiki torches and sparklers.

This is exclusive to suburban homes. Homes in rural areas deal with 0 of these issues with acres, more or slightly less, of land to separate them from others nearby. I personally look forward to having such a living space because I don’t care to maintain any communication with any of my neighbors, positive or negative. I don’t want to know you. I don’t want to be your friend. I don’t want to deal with your silly complaints about the way I choose to live my life.

You see, living in an apartment with actual walls between the residences and rules against smoke and excessive noise can’t ever be comfortable. And having so many apartments available won’t keep the prices down either! You’re supposed to bankrupt yourself on a house you settled for while repairing something else every two weeks to keep it habitable. You’re supposed to have trash pile up when you’re scheduled for mandatory overtime and you leave too early to take out the trash and return too late as the truck already left for consecutive weeks. You’re supposed to lose your house in a natural disaster or a fire caused by a teenager throwing their still burning joint on your lawn. You’re supposed to make $55,000 a year and still struggle to get by. And you’re supposed to enjoy it. This is happy. This is cozy.

I personally deal with 0 of these issues because I work from home as do many others in similar positions so I have the opportunity to take care of my home as issues arise. Despite having an older home, my home maintenance doesn’t come up nearly as often as this is, even with over exaggeration. The last time I had to do something for my home was many months ago, and I can’t even remember when or what it was. Most of the stuff I do for my home is stuff that I want to make life more enjoyable. Things I can’t do in someone else’s space like hanging stuff on the walls, painting my walls any color I wish, etc.

Owning a home allows someone to make changes they want, not having to only do what someone else wants.

If I don’t want gas appliances, I can switch out to electric or not have any if I choose. Can’t do that with an apartment.

If houses became apartments, there were more jobs in the area, and everyone got around by walking or biking, the population actually will be happier. Bike broke? No problem, walk, work a week, get a new one. Car broke? You are now on the slippery slope that leads to homelessness. Happy!

This sounds like heaven to people like you but is subjective. This sounds like hell to someone like me. City living is hell for me. Buildings and city skylines are hideous to me. Sure, I need a vehicle, but I’m fine with that. Sure that may require some maintenance and I’m fine with that too.

Plus my life sometimes requires me to travel farther distances to see friends and family who don’t live in the same city or even state that I do. I could do public transportation, but plane travel is a nightmare. I don’t want to be groped and harassed by security at airports and sit next to other people on a squished airplane. I don’t want to be stuck and confined on a train that only lets me get off at designated spots. I don’t want to be stuck on buses, some of which are dangerous in areas I’ve lived in because homeless people (some of which have violent behaviors due to psychosis) and criminals occupy them to target people who can’t leave. I also don’t want to be on someone else’s schedule where I can’t leave when I want and have to be somewhere at an exact time. Sometimes, like last night, I need to leave at odd hours like the middle of the night to go to the store and pick up medicine. And I don’t mind the drive from my rural area to somewhere with a store either, so that’s not an issue for me like it is for some others. It’s subjective. And there’s also just the convenience of having another option by having my own mode of transportation and not having to rely on someone else.

Luxury condominiums are way better than “luxury houses” anyway

Purely subjective. Luxury condominiums often come with nosy neighbors and Karens who get a little power on an HOA to rule your life and property you pay for. I currently don’t want one because of that plus the fact I’m paying for those people to harass me. If you do, fine, go buy one and be happy on your own.

but sure yeah you really need to protect your homestead with a gun

Still need to in many areas I’ve lived in. Requiring everyone to have an apartment like this would just make those areas worse.

In some areas I’ve lived in, gangs often occupied an entire apartment complex and would harass the people who lived there, similar to what Dredd showed just in the real world. Gang members would use the apartment to do their nefarious activities and rival gangs would target these areas with drive by shootings and generally making them unsafe areas to be solely because their enemies lived and/or did their crimes in the same apartment complex that others lived in. Government housing was the absolute worst of these. No one wanted to live in or near any complex that was owned and maintained by the government. At least with a landlord, they usually seem to be more on top of it since they have a vested interest than some politician who only cares every 2-6 years or some government employee that will never lose their job for not doing their job.

You’d think things would be safer with other people living so close, but then you have to remember the Bystander Effect and how many people turn a blind eye to someone else being a victim. Plus there’s also others knowing every aspect of your life and lifestyle because you live so close to each other. Your neighbor knows just by the sounds coming from your apartment when you’re eating, when you’re taking a shit, and when you come and go.

We say fuck cars, cars ruin cities, but where are the people saying fuck houses?

Not everyone wants to live in a city, so it doesn’t matter if a car ruins a city or not to someone like me.

All this comes across as a “you will own nothing and you will be happy” argument too. I don’t want to be dependent on anyone else. I don’t like other people. Frankly I’m more terrified of the idea of meeting another human in a forest than I am of a wild animal. People and society, in general, suck and I want as little physical contact as I can with others. How does any of this benefit people like me? Why does the world have to be black and white where you either live in an apartment with no car or you live in an apartment with no car?