Which relatively large metro area has the highest percent of people living in detached single family homes? (2015)

[Curious Discussion]

Where I live an ever increasing number of people are living in apartments, condos and townhomes. They don't look out at grass and trees but instead, look out at concrete and other buildings. This must have an impact on how they see life.

When I grew up in back in the 1960s there were very few apartments and basically no townhouses or condos. Nearly everyone lived in a detached single family home with trees, flowers, grass and a nice yard to throw a football around. Other than the yard care, I think it gave nearly everyone a higher quality of life. In the last ten years they have built more townhomes, apartments and condos but still most people still live in detached single family homes.

What metro area has the most people living in the detached single family homes in 2015?

(Yes, this question has been asked before but lets get replies from a new set of posters!)

[SVTLightning]

Why does this matter? you just posted that you live in an apartment complex with barking dogs.

Why create 2 threads almost identical?

Which relatively large metro area has the highest percent of people living in detached single family homes?

[stateofnature]

I find single family homes to be a complete headache. Not only the yard work, but just all that extra space means just more time devoted to cleaning, maintenance and getting the house in order. Even if you have plenty of money to spend to hire people out to do that stuff for you, then there's the headache of coordinating all those people. I find townhomes and apartments to be much more manageable. When I want to "throw a football around" I go to the park a couple blocks away from my rowhouse.

The idea that single family homes are a better quality of life for "nearly everyone" is a huge presumption based on the false notion that any one person knows what's best for most people. You don't even know what's best for one individual, me - how on Earth could you know what is best for "nearly everyone?" Let people decide for themselves what kind of lifestyle they want.

[NOLA101]

The Census compiles this info, in the annual American Community Survey.

Among major U.S. metros, I believe Detroit has the highest % of single family homes and NYC has the lowest % of single family homes.

[TarHeelNick]

Originally Posted by Curious Discussion

Where I live an ever increasing number of people are living in apartments, condos and townhomes. They don't look out at grass and trees but instead, look out at concrete and other buildings. This must have an impact on how they see life.

When I grew up in back in the 1960s there were very few apartments and basically no townhouses or condos. Nearly everyone lived in a detached single family home with trees, flowers, grass and a nice yard to throw a football around. Other than the yard care, I think it gave nearly everyone a higher quality of life. In the last ten years they have built more townhomes, apartments and condos but still most people still live in detached single family homes.

What metro area has the most people living in the detached single family homes in 2015?

(Yes, this question has been asked before but lets get replies from a new set of posters!)

Now, I wasn't around in the 1960s....but I'm pretty sure the bolded statements are highly inaccurate.

Did nearly everyone live in a single family house with a yard....or did nearly everyone YOU know live in a single family house with a yard?

The US has become a much less provincial place in the past 50 years; people didn't really know much outside their own neighborhood/town until relatively recently.

If you lived in a suburban town dominated by single family homes; that was what you saw.

Somebody who grew up in almost any neighborhood of New York City in the 1960s probably rarely spent much time in single family homes at all; most everyone they knew lived in apartments or rowhomes.

Today, with a much more connected domestic and global population; a person who grows up in a suburban house probably spends a decent amount of time in urban environments and vice versa. Or at the very least have "exposure" to people living in those different settings via social media, television, etc.


Also, substituting one's own preferences for being "the ideal" for everyone is a common, yet very unfortunate and again, highly inaccurate way of thinking sociologically.