Stop living in the cities. Once we start to grow our own food and drink water from original water sources. The quality of water and the amount of chemicals we are putting in the soil will be everyone's problem. Plastic bottles will go away as we will drink tap water. Urbanization is the worst for nature-human symbiosis. Off the grid is the future. Once we stop paying the government for the power/sewage/etc. governments won't have a lot of money to subsidize wars, promote corruption, etc.
I live in what the Soviets might have called a Krushovka - a low-rise walk up apartment building - and I absolutely love it. In Australia, there is a dread and revulsion for anything that isn't pure suburban car-centric, but as someone who can't drive for medical reasons, living in a cheap unit close to the city is heavenly. I ride my bike to work, walk to get groceries, and pay less rent because units are less desirable. The building is surrounded by a garden with plenty of birds and flowers, and I have a tiny balcony where I have a potted vegie garden and watch beautiful sunsets every day. My family would never ever live the way I do, but even they admit that I live incredibly happy and comfy in this style of housing.
I live above a pre-Federation era shop, which has the narrow & long footprint typical of buildings from that era. My real estate agent said he's never seen such an arrangement before in his 20 year career. While convenient, it's hard to buy the unit, as these sort of arrangements are usually not looked at favourably by banks who give out mortgages.
@@patrickfitzgerald2861 Same here! Before I move anywhere and see a place of interest, I learned to check out the *_neighbourhood_* first and more than once -- at daytime *_and_* at night!
Condos can be large or two-storey and equipted with big terrace just like houses too. But in case of Prague here such are the same price as a single family house outside capital
We do need to push more mid/ high density housing. It allows for better and cheaper public transportation. I think it will help many people see that they really don't need a car, an ebike or scooter will allow them to do most trips. If you don't need a car you save about $1,000 on rego/compulsory third party. Most will also have normal insurance so that's another $1,000 to $2,000. If I say that's $2,500 before turning the key on my car that's $50 each week that could be spent on public transport, taxis or hiring a car when I might need it. I suspect that a lot of people even now could replace many of their car trips by riding a bike walking or using public transport.
I think we should also talk about the quality of housing. For example, privacy and new ways of behaviors. Many people want single house just to get rid of the neighbours noice. Buildings are build poorly without proper sound insulation between units and non existing insulation inside units. Also we became louder, everyone needs home cinema and huge stereo eventhough it is to big and loud for the space. I think people would not care that much about size of their living space as long as it is quality one with access to quality and affordable services. Plus surrounding greenery can make places super attractive.
Americans too often perceive themselves as victims of government. The design of our government is extremely flawed. One unwanted result is that we have crime levels more like undeveloped countries. And home purchases are often linked to distance from the crime ridden neighborhoods. Our self-image has contributed to this plague of crime. The countries with fewer people in these wasteful boxes don't identify with the criminals.
Fully agreed with that, living in an apartment and hearing how my neighbor sneezes every f day makes me crazy and regular Beethoven's moonlight from upstairs doesn't make it any easier
I'm cool with more density for all the reasons stated in this video. But there is one big problem with it and that's what makes me prefer living in a detached house in the suburbs. Noise. Most apartments(at least in the US which is all I can speak for) have thin walls and ceilings. So I have to constantly hear people's feet walking over my head, or hear people's loud TVs coming through the wall. Where I live now I can just open my windows and listen to crickets chirping at night and that's it. I'd gladly live in a walkable area in a condo or apartment if they figure out a way to soundproof it.
I feel the same way. They can sound proof it but they don't want to pay for it. I hated living sandwiched in and or above others. You have to be mindful of everything you do. And hear everyone else.
@@thetrainguy1 It's not even the cars so much, it's the sound of noisy neighbors. I used to live next to a hardcore gamer who had a loud entertainment system with bass. It sounded like a constant war was going on his apartment with booms, explosions and rumbles. All of it coming through my wall. Nice thing about a detached house is not having to hear that. I have nothing against dense apartment living, would actually like it if everyone in the building was super quiet.
For 2023, it’s hard to nail down specific predictions for the housing market is because it’s not yet clear how quickly or how much the Federal Reserve can bring down inflation and borrowing costs without tanking buyer demand for everything from homes to cars.
@Craig Daniels Given current recession pressures, it is unlikely that the stock will yield substantial returns in the near term. However, it may be a suitable investment opportunity. I will monitor market conditions and consider purchasing when there is an improvement in the relevant economic indicators, any idea which stocks this may be?
@Craig Daniels I totally agree, I'm 60 and newly retired with about 1.2 million outside retirement funds, no debt, and very small dollars in retirement. I don’t base my market judgements and decisions on rumours and here-says, got the best of me 2020 and had me holding worthless position in the market, I had to revamp my entire portfolio through the aid of an advisor, before I started seeing any significant results happens in my portfolio, been using the same advisor and I’ve scaled up 750k within 2 years, whether a bullish or down market, both makes for good profit, it all depends on where you’re looking.
@@tatianastarcic Do you mind sharing info on the adviser who assisted you? been saving for pension since age 18 - company scheme. along the way I hit higher tax, so I added to my company pension with a SIPP (tax benefits) I'm 50 now and would love to grow my finance more aggressively, there are a few cars I still wish to drive, a few mega holidays, etc.
I agree with this video, but I just moved out of a multi-family building and into a single-family house. The reason for my move was a dispute with the strata council that had turned toxic. I'm reluctant to ever live in a multi-family building again! Unfortunately my energy use will certainly go up and I'm having to spend to furnish my new home. Who your neighbours are really matters, and that's something that's difficult to control.
I live in a coop building. I love living in apartments. What I don't like is how cheap the material many of the new buildings use. My coop building is almost a century old and the insulation is great as well as the sound reduction inside and between apartments. The building my mother lives in is not even a decade old and the walls are paper thin and the winters are cold af if you don't constantly have the heat on.
The problem in the US is that renting an apartment, the vast majority of housing within cities, absolutely sucks. You pay pretty much the same monthly as a mortgage for housing and get nothing in return when you move out. That money is gone. Plus you can't make any modifications that your landlord doesn't approve. When you purchase your own home it becomes an investment. Almost always improving in value over time as you make updates. And at the end when you move out you will likely end up with profit in your pocket. If you could purchase apartments the same way you can a house then it would be a different story.
Exactly , Do we really want to live in a nation of renters? Just how exactly are we going to stop big bad business from jacking up rents year after year?
When I live in an apartment it was fine when I was single. Once I got married and had my son, it became a nightmare of complaining neighbors. The little guy is active, and the neighbor below could hear him running. Getting a single family was the best decision we ever made.
You mean 'getting a single family home'? I do believe you. I also own a house (I am 33) but it's getting harder for the average middle class family to even afford a property. With how things are right now I think it's unavoidable to think differently when it comes to properties and living, especially in urban areas.
My wife and I tried a condo with neighbors on both sides--attached walls! While we owned, in the adjacent units, rental business brought tenants of varying nature: Some loud, some good. We didn't have much peace of mind. And eventually, the whole 12 unit building was burned down due to a tenant throwing his cigarette into some shrubbery. We moved out and bought land and built a small house. But we have only cut down bare minimum trees. I am hoping our saving trees on this multi acre property is making some difference.
It all depends on building quality, if the building is with thick concrete floor, you should not hear your neighbors. If it's just a box with drywalls and wooden floors, of course it is a nightmare for tenants, basically I think it should be illegal to build like that anything but single houses.
In the US one of the underlying problems is the very strict zoning and that almost all new residential areas are exclusively zoned for single family homes. British and Dutch style row houses provide a good alternative. You still have many of the benefits of a single family home, but the density is high enough to justify local amenities and public transport.
I totally agree with the issue with single family homes. But I live in an apartment building and you don't know the amounts of times I was intrupted of my work or life because of an upstair neighbor's pipe burst issue. Or when someone new moves in and wants to connect to internet and the tech guy literally unplugs my internet connection for hours then forgets to fix it after his job is done. Living in an apartment building as better as it sounds for the environment it is also equally terrible for person life. And I don't think there is a solution for that I don't think anyone can guarantee me that I will have perfect neighbors or people will learn to live in harmony. So my focus is to be able to afford a single family home and move there. Preferably, close to a market or shoping center so I can ride a bike to there. But I will ride my car to my job. If I'm guilty for that then what about super rich people with private planes and car collections. NOT TO EVEN MENTION THEIR HOUSEHOLDS. I'm done chewing on paper trying to drink my coffee of a plastic cup. We're always focusing on the wrong issues. Thank you for the video its well done.
I think what they need to do is to have stronger laws for apartment buildings, such as noise regulation and the neighobour should be fined if their own problem affect their neighbours. Of course it is nice to own a family house. But the truth is that it is just not sustainable for many cities and population. Not at least if you want afforable housing and livable cities. We live in the world where rent is out of control and traffic is terrible. And we need to make changes in our lifestyle to try to make it work. Maybe one day you will have your one family house but you will probably be annoyed by the horrible traffic/ public transport because it is impossible to get to your work. And what caused it is because the suburbs are too spread out and people have to commute to work but the infrastructure can't support the traffic. So that is why we have to transition to a different life style. And a different life style isn't always 'bad' because maybe it sucks to live in an apartment now. But it is always possible to make changes in the world so that living in an apartment is more tolerable. I do agree that the rich is out of control. But I feel with enough pressure from the public the rich will have to change too. Especially when the planet is on fire and we are literally facing our doom.
@@probablyaman I agree if certain changes applied apartment life can be good too. I have to admit I am a bit salty because ever since I was a child I dreamt of that house xD Gotta admit that world is changing and we can't have some luxrys older generation had. I guess its fair since they won't have some luxrys we'll have
I loved my apartment building but the walls were thick concrete, it was big, had a gorgeous view of the city and everyone was friendly they just need to be built better and regulated more
One thing mentioned in the video is making more townhomes, because those will often be cheaper to buy. I live in Pittsburgh, and developers have been building townhomes all over the city. They are going for anywhere between $700k to $1.5 million, which is nowhere near affordable for most lifelong Pittsburghers. Almost all of the suburbs here are filled with single family homes, and are not very pedestrian friendly. Unless you have a car in the suburbs, you're not getting around.
The reason they’re expensive is because there’s still too much built up demand on the land underneath the homes. I could say that building and living out of a shed is cheaper, but if you put that shed on a lot of land that is worth 500 thousand dollars, it’s not affordable.
I would never compare Croatian or Jakartian single family homes with US ones. Those in Croatia are dense, narrow, stone, multistorey city houses separated by 1m of free space from one another. Free space is good for cooling and saves energy. The US single family houses are huge mansions, saparated by 10m of lawn around it with no purpose, houses made of wood, that would decay in 30 years and needs to be rebuilt all over again.
Typically those "huge mansions" are in places with a tremendous amount of empty space to fill. It is surprisingly cheap to build a large 2-story house in States with lots of open space. This is a massive country with a lot of cheap land in the middle of nowhere. If you had a small 1-story house in Miami it could easily cost almost a million dollars... A million-dollar home in South Carolina could buy a mansion in the woods with solar panels and a well.
The US single family houses are huge mansions, saparated by 10m of lawn.. I wish. My house is under 1000 sqf , which I sacrificed to buy , fair and square yet videos like these want to demonize me for owning a house . Meanwhile the truly rich in this world will always get to live where they want and how they want.
5:06 I’m in an area of LA which used to be spacious suburbs but is steadily densifying. Because of this, I often see people online complaining about how “crowded” it feels. But I always respond the same way: it doesn’t feel crowded when you’re walking around on the sidewalk in the main shopping center…it only feels crowded when you’re stuck in a traffic jam and trying to get to the shopping center’s parking garage. People don’t take up much space; cars do. P.S. for any LA people out there: CicLAvia is this Sunday. Come out, bring your bike (or rent one), and experience what a neighborhood without cars could feel like!
Bicycles are not the answer . Maybe LA should clean up its pathetic mass transit system so regular people can once again feel safe on the bus and trains.
People buy cars. No people no cars. Cars are not going to move in to the neighborhood on their own. Your comments are ridiculous as usual. LA is spread out, good luck getting from Santa Monica to Burbank in a 20 minutes bike ride. It's 2 hrs one way or 30-40 mins by car. And what about hills in LA, there is terrain, not very bike friendly. The problem with LA is that it is vast and yes it's crowded, but the crowd is ever changing. Correct me if I'm wrong but more people are leaving suburbs LA for the suburbs of Las Vegas or AZ, NM, TX, name it (Mexico included). Affordability is a major factor for humans than sustainability.
@@willcallu491 in LA it won't work. The US has space it's not a small Europe, where you can ride from one side of the town to another in less than 1 hour. Even in Europe bikes don't work much only as a form of transport from public transit to the place of work mostly. But you are right to incorporate bikes they need to fix public transit first. In Germany btw majority of ppl still prefer cars to bikes.
That's today! Ciclavia is one of the best things LA does! I always discover tons of small businesses during Ciclavia that I wouldn't notice otherwise driving past in a car.
I still want a single family home with a nice yard.I currently live in a apartment and I paying rent for something I don't own,two I can hear my neighbors and their annoying music,three the apartment owners can have check ins to my apartment at anytime,four I have to fight for parking in a crowded parking lot and 5 I am disabled and I need a place fixed to my needs.
I would love to see more "missing middle" housing. I currently live in a single-family in the suburbs. Many people don't know or talk to their neighbors. I noticed during the pandemic, that with people walking out on the street, we met more people in the neighborhood than we did the past 25 years we lived in this house. Also we were playing, biking, walking, running in the street more and there was an actual community feel. Moreover, our house (built in late 70s) has a lot of costs, needs a new roof, yard maintenance, pool maintenance, etc. Our old neighbors moved into a condo because of the cost to maintain their house. I also learned another neighbor, who are original owners of 45 years, are still paying off their mortgage because of the loans they took out on their house to maintain their property. A single-family detached house is not appealing to me at all. The market for missing middle housing is vastly underserved. Living options can't just be single-family or superdense cities. It's a huge detriment to the country that missing middle housing is illegal in most places.
I wanted to build a tiny house on a trailer in my own driveway of small single family house. For that house, I pay property taxes, insurance, and mortgage. But city hall says that I am not allowed to do that. Apparently I live in a large town, small city, that has little or no imagination. I feel its very unfortunate that although I pay to live, I cannot do what I want on my own property, given that what I want would not hurt anyone. Its very unfair.
I grew up in houses and lived in a few apartments in my early 20s. The space wasn’t an issue, but the arguing neighbors , loud music, and booming bass from cars sitting outside my window/ neighbors playing music above me gave me frequent panic attacks . The booming sounds that I couldn’t get away from or drown out with headphones were too much for me as an anxious person.
I love living in my apartment building - my neighbours are rarely so loud that I am annoyed by noise (the noise from cars on the street is far worse), it's a mid-rise building of only five floors, I have 750 square feet of space with huge windows, I have rent control, and I appreciate that I don't have to be in debt for decades to live here. Apartment living isn't always perfect, but the alternative isn't to promote single-family dwellings, as some people in the comments here seem to thin - the solution is to improve apartments, and provide more options for people.
I used to feel exactly like you but now I love the city and can’t imagine leaving. Your mind and preferences really can adapt to anything if you hang around long enough.
@@youtubename7819 I've lived in a metro area (230k+) for 20 years. There is very little in the way of enjoyable things i have to say about it. I would never recommend for someone to move here. The only mental solace I achieve is spending time where there is more nature and less people. I'm capable of enjoying cities on short excursions; particularly food, arts & architecture. However, this is achievable only because I know that I'll soon be leaving.
@@youtubename7819 I did say those things. Perhaps 'metro' was the wrong adjective for me to use; urban might be more apt. I spent the first half of my life living in a rural village. There was a several mile radius around the village of farms, fields and woods. You could tell when you leave the village and arrive in the next. I currently reside in a town that is more of a suburb - several towns packed together near a small city. The town I live in is only 14k. The 238k pop is for the 'greater area' around the city. I think the city is around 40k-50k. Driving from one town to the next, however, offers no visual distinction; so, it seems like one big town with several business districts. I'm in the process of moving to the edge of town, where I will be on 7 acres with a couple miles of woods as my neighbor. That should take some of the pain off.
The solution should be democratized reforestation and asphalt to gravel un-development. It suburban lawns were replaced with native wildflower meadows, permeable pavement and more native trees, then connected into the city with light impact roads and traveled on by electric powered cars, it would go a long way to bringing back space for nature AND preserving the land from agricultural use which promotes monocultures. A suburban neighborhood can support a LOT of plant and animal diversity if we renautralise it. Not to mention, native landscaping is gorgeous and cheap to maintain. The only downside I see is that there will still be traffic and freeways but this can be tackled by promoting autonomous vehicles that can be shared instead of each house having one taking up space and resources. Also, implement new urbanist principles of mixed use so that an individuals doesn't have to drive more than a few miles to get basic things, and if we are lucky, they may even choose to walk, or take a light impact vehicles such as a golf cart or bicycle. Also, allow homeowners to subdivide their homes into more than one unit so they can sell half of the property or turn it into a rental. We are not going to get ride of suburbia but we can make it much better.
you are correct. however, encouraging the use of any automobile, regardless of fuel type, will only increase car-dependancy. unless you're talking cars powered by catenaries. but at that point a trolleybus would be a better solution. the shared autonomous vehicles are still car-dependancy,and again, at that point, an automated light rail or trolleybus system would be a better solution, since autonomous cars are more likely to fail if demand gets too high and it's been proven that cars are the least efficient mode of transporting people. what needs to happen is we need to make it more practical and tempting to use car alternatives, and narrow the massive stroads and streets using raised intersections, median trees, slower speed limits, bike paths and tram tracks.
Apartment style condo buildings are poorly built: Neighbor noise, burst pipes, massive special assessments for maintenance issues. I don't want to smell my neighbors smoking or hear their partying. Condos are overpriced and yet bad experiences.
I love living in an apartment in an European city. Freedom and car independence for us and our children. We used to live in the US for 1,5 years in a house and I hated it - so isolated, have to drive everywhere, really lonely and boring although I had some friends, but I really missed living in a city and couldn't wait to go back to my homeland. In my childhood back home we lived in a 9-storey apartment building and the only sound I can remember from neighbours is some far away piano. Really calming memories. I loved living in a city as a child - total freedom- going by foot to school , then walks with friends, buying groceries on your way home. And I love living in an apartment in an European city now - again total freedom, everything reachable by foot. And we don't hear any neighbours except again for someone playing piano sometimes - beautiful! ❤
A single family home is the only type of housing I am interested in. I don't want to live in a high-density nightmare surrounded by people. I don't want to share walls with neighbors whom I have no choice in selecting. To each their own, of course, but no thanks... I'll stick to my single family home and car in a rural area with my nearest neighbor many miles away.
The thing you should have emphasized is that, even though high density housing is not for everyone, there should be freedom and availability to choose where you would want to live, you want a house with a front/backyard; you're welcome to it but don't prohibit people to build different in the neighborhood, if there is demand. Also, you can't expect the utilities offered would be the same in an exurb environment than inside a city.
@@albertoclonado "experts". No scientist knows how his "theory" will work in reality. None of DW videos should be watched as a life manual anyways. It's good additional knowledge, but always do your own research.
@@albertoclonado Why does it make you mad though, they aren't passing a law and enforcing it, they literally are just informing, what people do with the information is the important part.
I left my apartment heater off most of December and January. The other units kept my unit at 72F. The single home was costing me $200-$300 in gas for the furnance.
I think there is a factor you aren't calculating regarding Croatia and anywhere in the Balkans. For us in this side of the world it is a lot about surviving, to live in one family homes. We live above a ground geologically active where powerful earthquakes happen. We saw what happened in Turkey with badly built buildings, we saw in Italy with old buildings. Even if we build well, how many quakes can they withstand. After a 6.4 we were super scared to get on our apartment on the seventh floor. We live terrified always waiting for the next shake. Useless to say that i will buy a small one family house as soon as I'm done paying the loan. I guess a journalist in Germany cannot comprehend what is like to live above unstable ground.
If you live in a building where you share walls with your neighbors, your neighbors' bugs are also your bugs. Roaches and bed bugs spread from apartment to apartment through the walls. I rented an apartment in Houston in 2017. That was 6 years ago, and I still have bed bug PTSD. Never again.
@@Xenomorph-hb4zf ignoring the one year it took you to reply, detached homes are just more expensive in every way since you need to have support for 4 walls rather than just 3 with attached homes, detached homes are more expensive to heat and cool since 4 walls are exposed and plumbing can't just be installed in parallel like an appartment would. you just cannot make a detached home less expensive than an appartment or townhouse.
The UK has a lot of the mixed housing in terraced homes and townhouses, but it's almost completely missing the high density apartments in city centres. It's another horrible extreme, which makes city commuting almost unmanageable, just look at the sprawl of London, it's an absolute nightmare to go from one end to the other even using the tube. It's all because of poor planning and keeping antiquated feudal laws about leaseholding apartments, making it undesirable to build or buy leaseholds due to astronomical costs. Basically those laws mean that almost no one who buys an apartment fully owns it, instead buys a lease from the building owner to use that apartment as their own, but must pay ground rent and exorbitant extensions to the lease. The whole system is a major scam, plus the UK is desperately short of housing. It's all down to big property owner politicians making the rules to favour themselves and their mates screwing everyone else over. Policy changes are desperately needed here for housing as well!
No home being built today (whether an apartment, townhouse, duplex or single family) needs to be larger than 1500 SF. It’s just unnecessary to make it larger. I grew up in a home of 900 SF with my parents and 3 siblings. Although, we also had an unfinished basement, which afforded us laundry space, extra storage, and a place for us kids to roller skate in winter.
1:17 all of those so called fantasy homes are actually cheaply made wooden structures (even though they can be coated with stone or brick afterwards), that are slightly sturdier than cardboards. They also suck in terms of heat isolation.
A major obstacle to higher housing density in the US is noise. If buildings could be designed better and constructed better so that noise was not a problem, then the unpleasantness of higher density could be avoided.
Electrification of cars is going a long way in solving that problem. Making certain streets car-free as well can help. Most noise and air pollution in cities comes from suburbanites and their cars, rather ironically. But yes, better construction that accounts for noise…
@@julmaass Electric cars waste just as much space as gasoline cars. Tire wear, which is the single biggest source for microplastic and a big source for fine particulate matter, will only get worse with heavier electric cars. And at typical driving speeds, the biggest source for noise are also the tires. Electric vehicles won't solve much.
@@Xenomorph-hb4zf No. We need to build viable alternatives to cars, be it public transport, cycling infrastructure or increased density. That of course means making things harder for cars at the same time.
I like DW production as always. However, the low level mistake shouldn't be done for a such big team. At 9:23 that place is not in Singapore. It is Malaysia which also a British colony before gaining Independent with Singapore. That place is known by "Dataran Merdeka" which can be translate into "Independent Square", you would know how big a mistake you make.
ikr! I replayed that scene at least a dozen times and also caught a glimpse of the Malaysian flag to the right before the scene change. Seems like a small mistake to most that don't recognize but it just seems like a few slip-ups like these questions the quality of their other reporting
Banks need to ease lending on condo purchases, it’s pretty ridiculous the current guidelines in the U.S. for condo purchases. They are discriminating against lower income people
Similar zoning issues exist in Australian suburbs around major city centres. The older suburbs have evolved and most have mixed use with nearby shops and transport. I live in a detached single family house that is close to amenities, schools, child care and public transport. It's the new suburbs that are being built now that suffer from urban sprawl.
This is one of the biggest benefits of historic structures. Even in nations like the US and Canada, neighborhoods were designed to be walkable before the advent of cars. Preserving the historic buildings that comprise these neighborhoods not only preserves walkable spaces, but also reduces the carbon emissions needed to gather materials for a new building. Historic structures can also be renovated into affordable housing units as well.
Apartments are great for the environment so I guess that makes me feel better about having little privacy, lots of noise from neighbours, running into neighbors in the shared back patio when I just want to drink some tea and let my mind unwind, and the difficulty of getting anything done through the HOA. I bought in 2009 when I was single and saw it as a place to live for 5-6 years. The mortgage is so budget friendly I can't see moving into a million dollar single family home in the same neighborhood and tripling or quadrupling my housing expense, though a wife, child and 2 dogs later it is tempting! A few of my friends have moved to Sacramento for their dream house but STILL commute daily to the SF Bay Area, but as this video says there is the phenomenon of the missing middle so if you want desirable middle income housing good luck finding it!
Here in Brazil the contemporary houses is with a big wall and gate that excludes all the connection of the yard with the street, creating dead sidewalks without eyes on the street. I live in a 80s single family home near by the downtown. Condominiums with single family homes is very popular here, and very far from commerces
I actually never lived in a single house (other than our summer place.) But I don’t think it is a wrong concept but rather how we construct the houses and build infrastructure is the problem. We going going towards a crazy mobility age (home-office, home-schooling, drone deliveries, etc.) It is impossible reverse that trend. So I think this beautiful piece has to be re recorded with a slightly adjusted message. On the other-side, I think living on 19th floor(as we used to live) is actually against human nature. Covid really gave us a good lesson there.
@@mayor3273 And the cost of infrastructure (roads, utilities) and infrastructure maintenance per unit, which are unsustainable in large parts of the suburbs.
@@SomePotato that was also my point. Same machine learning algorithms existed 40 years ago but they didn’t worth a dime. Over the time tech improved and enabled it. Same applies for the mobility
Zoning laws in Brazil are very different... if it is not a gated comunity, you can build any type of building in your lot (the only restrictions are height and industries)... my neighborhood, for example, it was a suburb built in 1982-85, and in the begining only had single family houses, a middle/high public school, and a pedestrian mall at the center, but in the 90's you could find all kinds of shops, low apartment buildings (four floors maximum), doctors offices etc etc... in the 2000's the zoning law was changed and tall apartment buildings started to appear... nowadays you almost don't need to leave the neighborhood... groceries, drugstores, bakeries, banks, schools, reastaurants all in walking distance or a short biking (it's a big neighborhood)
I’ve been fortunate to live in several areas of my home country (US). I’ve lived in large cities, the suburbs, and rural areas…and enjoyed them all, at different points of my life. Today I am a remote worker, and prefer to live in a quiet area…far from large amounts of people. I don’t mind things being a little less convenient, and appreciate the mental health benefits of a ‘slower’ paced lifestyle. That could change in my next phase of life…certainly happy now.
Don't care about being so green that I have to live right next to and on top of people. Ill choose living on land where my neighbors are close, but far enough that I have space. To each their own..
The problem is that apartment living comes with lots of frustration with loud, messy neighbors that can interfere with sleep or hygiene in the building. Then there is the never ending rent increases. So many greedy corporations and investors push for the highest rent increases each year. Renting used to more more affordable than owning, now that’s usually not the case. If you have your own house it’s a known payment into the future, and eventually you will have it paid off. Rent is FOREVER!
I live in a small township in Quebec, Canada. Historically, the village and surrounding areas are all single family homes. Many of these were farm houses. Later, other houses were built. We have a shortage of housing and prices have risen greatly. There is a problem of affordability of housing for the young and less wealthy families. We now have the idea of converting some single family homes to shared housing (co-housing). We have a population that is old and getting older. There is the idea of converting a large single family home to a co-housing building for single elderly people to live together to support each other and avoid loneliness. This would free some housing for families to grow in right in the village or near to it. We also have the idea, and now the by-laws to support it, to add tiny homes to the yards of some single family homes to increase population density in our village. We also have developed housing within easy walking distance of the village centre, where there is plenty of shopping and work opportunities for our small population. However, these developments - done in the last fifteen to twenty years - are all single family homes. This is a missed opportunity, in my view. In the last five years, apartment buildings have been built within walking distance of the village centre. It seems we are learning to increase housing stock without wasting precious land which could be used to produce food and to enjoy nature. I love the idea of increasing density in urban areas by creating co-housing, tiny house living and other more dense living situations than the usual North American ideal. I also love the idea of bringing food production into cities, towns and villages. Here in Canada, we can use greenhouses and urban food gardens to produce much of our fresh produce. This would be wonderful, in my view. We all can learn to live more simply, take up less space and love this Earth through all of our choices, values and lifestyle. My village centre is full of people walking about. This makes it a precious place out of the ordinary of North American living spaces.
On a personal level I hate living and raising kids in a concrete high rise in Korea. Especially with toddlers during the first few covid years. Even though sometimes it feels like hell to me at least it's an objectively good way to live? 🥺
My take on it is revert single family zoning laws to from single to mixed. Build Singapore styled apartment complexes next to train stations, expand the public rail and bus system. All of this requires money which nobody wants to spend.
The longer people keep demonizing veichules and privacy, the harder it will get to win the majority of the population for environmental issues. We should focus on solutions: city planing focusing on cycling, promote eletric scooters, create infrastructure for electric vehicles, promote better insulation and higher quality materials and promote homework to avoid unecessary commutes. Trying to convice people that owning a cubicle inside a noisy city and and that travelling in 3 different jampacked metros, trains and bus is better that leaving your front door, enter your vehicle and drive to where you want to go is proving inneficient.
One very big problem is zoning commercial and residencial areas as separate when there would be very big benefits to zoning them together. Including a labor force that lives close to work which can help eliminate traffic and pollution. Building that house a lot of families rather than just one family are far more cost effective for people so making only single family homes aloud creates a housing shortage and higher housing prices.
I love your videos, thank you for posting:) We recently moved to a house from an apartment and were so ready to have the private space everyone praises... after a year we were so sick of renovating, buying things to fill the house, we build a huge deck.. but guess what then we had to buy a lot of furniture to furnish it all... it was just never ending. That was not what we wanted, so after a year we decided to sell the house and then we moved into the city in an apartment, and we love it! We sold our car and bought e-bikes instead, so now we walk, bike or use an electric car-share. And we love it. The SHOULD in our cultures are enormous, I can't even count the times we have had to explain/defend why we live in an apartment down town with a kid and intend to not live in the suburbs again.. wow! Thank you for the encouragements through these videos.
I've heard the arguments, and I don't care. I want a single family house, in a village. I've lived in an apartment in the city, nothing cities have to offer is worth it, for me.
it doesnt exist anymore. I bought and sold twice in the early 2000s. interest for me was around 3 percent. I wont see interest rates that low again in my lifetime...
In our area there's SO MUCH R1 (single family dwelling zoning). Building up gets expensive because of the earthquake hazard and engineering required, but there's no reason to limit the number of dwellings on these (often quite large) lots. We need to keep the parts of building code and zoning that keeps buildings from falling down but eliminate the parts that are just about creating scarcity and avoiding density.
No thanks, I’m happy in my single family home, no way I’d give up my house for a high-rise. Humans were never meant to live in such overcrowded conditions and the urban lifestyle is very constraining. I enjoy visiting cities like NYC as much as the next person but it’s only enjoyable in moderation. We can solve the environmental impact of suburban living with more efficient transportation and cleaner energy production. I think it’s also worth considering the impact urban living has had on birth rates. It has encouraged the collapse of the birth rate in many countries such as South Korea and Japan, this poses a serious risk to their future.
in Sydney, we called it a war between who have and who have not. Politicians and rich people will always go against the development of high rises in their areas. Less supplies mean higher prices. Simple.
I'm a single person, who wants to buy home for seemingly superficial reason. Where I live most apartments don't allow pets if they do it's a extra fee in the hundreds. It snows here and I'd love somewhere to put my car when it snows, also I really want access to a yard to grow some vegetables and fruits, we don't have public gardening spaces really in America unless you own the land. I can also barely even decorate anything, can't paint walls, I currently can't even put a nail in the wall to hold a clock, just command strips and thanks to this high gloss paint it falls off the wall periodically. I just want my own little space and would be content with a tiny home, but thanks to building restrictions, and forced utilities for some land plots I can't do that unless I know someone who would let me put it on their land
Living in Singapore. I don't own a car and travels mainly using the train and buses. You can practically get to anywhere in Singapore with train and buses. Having a car in Singapore is the main reason Singaporean complains about being poor.
9:30 Hell no! For some that is a dystopian packed high rise. I just sometimes visit the concrete jungle. I hate it. Ive lived urban, suburb, semi-rural, and rural. Suburbs and semi-rural are great. Not too close to everyone else. Rural is like being in your own world. People need to cool it on the parasitic expansion. Less is more.
theres a bus stop 10 meters down the road from my house and a big supermarket 900 meters away and a school almost in my front yard and i live in denmark and this is pretty common around here
I live in a two bedroom flat near a train station. Five years I've been living here and never had a car. I use the train to commute and walk everywhere I need to. If I need to go a bit further, I get a taxi which are usually available fast enough.
I would never want a home. I have no reason to have one. Those who settle yes but so many live purposefully single. I am one of them. I can’t take care of a home alone and if I could why🤷🏽♀️ I don’t want to be stuck anywhere unless kids are involved.
1. Relax zoning laws to allow mixed housing in different locations including closer to the urban center 2. Vastly improve mass transit and decrease spaces taken up by car focused infrastructure like massive parking lots 3. Increase work from home opportunities to bring down cost of living in cities and therefore decrease the number of overall commuters to work
The problem of single-family home is its long-term sustainability. A city would not be able to keep a healthy enough income for such a low-density suburb to maintain the roads and infrastructure. The problems will show after a few decades and are seen in many cities in America. You lose the economy of scale with single-family homes. No public utility, transportation or investment would make any sense with it. You need a well-designed block of self-sufficient walkable neighborhood without relying on cars for a neighborhood to last a long time.
For a family with young children, a single family home is pretty much a necessity. There is definitely stress related to owning a single family home, but nothing like the stress of walking on eggshells with loud and noisy kids who often "need" to bounce balls within the house during bad weather. The ability to grill is also a big plus, as is the ability to host friends and guests with relative freedom. Lastly, fire alarms and evacuations were not fun, and they happen often enough. If, however, you could have apartments that are perfectly soundproof, or soundproof enough for all of this not to be a worry, I would definitely go for it. Multi-story apartments could also work to deal with imperfect soundproofing, although it may require some creative floor planning.
FYI for future pieces, scene from 9:22 is from Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) and not Singapore. I would love the missing middle format. But every region is different and here many homes are multigenerational living.
Zoning? Urban planning? Being from the Philippines, it is an unfamiliar of these terms. I thought everyone can build houses wherever they want. Informal settlers exists. The roads feels like endless maze of traffic jams.
Good video! Another problem that wasn't really touched upon, is the long-term financial infeasibility of pure single family zoning. The costs for building and maintaining infrastructure (roads, utilities) per unit is much, much higher for single family homes while tax revenues generated by those units is much, much lower, not covering these costs. The dense centers are subsidizing the suburbs.
@@jonathanjones3126 In theory I don't have a problem with parts of the city being subsidized by others. That's solidarity. But if it's mainly subsidies for the wealthy, like in this case, I'm with you.
The fact that so many people in the comments think that the only two options for housing are high rise apartment blocks and single family homes is kind of part of the problem, isn‘t it?
I would love to see a more in-depth video on this from this channel. I live in a family home, which was built 10 years ago in a way that was able to be divided and now 2 families live here. I imagine the same story in Croatia with its notoriously unofficial way of living. Our house is an 8-minute walk from a train station, so I would really advise not mixing the US and EU data into one story. Yes, there are many bad examples of neighborhoods here around Bratislava with bad access to public transportation, but not to the extent of North America. Our home has only 2 meters of garden on 3 sides and is semi-detached. The problem you are describing is I think in the transportation which will soon have to be low carbon. Secondly, in the code - Slovakia has a good code in terms of using enough insulation. And thirdly, many people nowadays grow just lawns, but if you compare established neighborhoods over time biodiversity will be much bigger in the developed areas than in the surrounding monoculture fields. So, I really thank you for the video, but I think it is just about implementation, which means I am looking forward to your new video on how to make these desolate ugly places that are being built more functional from the standpoint of a small municipality, or a local activist!
This video doesn’t address the negative impact on mental health when living in a high density area. Having a private yard is portrayed as a bad thing in this video but in my opinion it’s preferable when raising a family and animals.
I think we should also look at the differences between single-family neighborhoods. Old suburbs built around rail stations before WW2 often have a main street, good walkability, varied architecture, small setbacks, small yards, many local parks, and some semi-detached homes. Smaller lot sizes and small setbacks make a massive difference. That being said, all SF homes should pay their fair share of taxes.
One big deterent to town homes and condos are the HOAs (Home Owner Association), and the maintenance fees. This is something you own and you don't want rules and regulations to interfere with certain things you decide to do with your property. We do need laws and building regulations to help create and keep respect for neighbourhoods. The HOAs I have heard about, can be a nightmare of rules and God forbid you take a stand and NOTpay fees, etcetera....you could find the Association owning your home from winning in court over unpaid fees and fines accumulation and your 'anti social' behavior. You would be evicted from your home
That’s all fine and good but like others have said, apartment living is an endless money vacuum. Also, unless the MDU I’m living in is almost sound proof I’ve no desire to live that close to people 🤷♀️
well, so is a single-family, car dependent home. but if you would rather live in a single-family home, that's fine. appartments and high-rises aren't for everyone, but there needs to be the freedom to choose and affort to live in an appartment
First they came for the cows and I didn't say anything, then they came for the cars and I didn't say anything, then they came for the houses and I didn't say anything, and then they said "you will own nothing and you will be happy".
This applies mainly to USA / Canada where they built clusters of isolated homes without any shops / services. It could be easily fixed if you ask me (or at least reduce the number of trips by car to buy some bread and butter and a beer or get a haircut). I spent 99.9% of my life in apartments and flats and it's a real pain if the neighbors are uneducated and have 0 consideration. Recently I moved to a detached house and I am living and breathing and feeling liberated like never before (but keep in mind that I can use public transportation and also shops are at a walkable distance). Indeed it can be a total waste of space, but if you think about it parks can also be thought about as a waste - instead of grass and alleyways you can have community gardens that can feed people, etc.
Come on, Singapore? Would you like to live in an anthill? Natural town or city tissue are low rise (up to 5 stories) multi-family buildings with stores or services groundfloores along main streets. It had always been like that up to early 20th century when cars and elevators cancered cities' genotype. The cure: garage certificate required while registering a car and extra property taxes for uninhabited or overspaced houses/flats.
People compare apartments in the US and Europe as if they are equal, but apartments in the US have the worst soundproofing ever and no one seems to be addressing this problem.
Why can't we just say that both single family and multiple family living are desirable options for different people and should both be available? Also better urban planning and more mixed use areas should definitely be encouraged.
Having an apartment would be an option for me if it is say an entire floor of a detached home with a large green able balcony You can do a lot with little space, but that’s just it. I don’t want to just exist in order to get on the capitalist treadmill of work and return to my sleeping pods to repeat the process the next day. I’m sure this can be addressed with shared community spaces One doesn’t actually need individual large spaces to maintain a high quality of living
np, you just sould start to pay your fair share of taxes. right now the city cetnters financially support the suburbs because of the low density, suburbs need more street and plumbing per person etc, which currently is not refelcted in the tax rate. citys rather take loans than to actually tax suburbs what they cost to maintain.
@@Ginkoman2 And selfish suburbanites should be forced to pay for the damage they do to the environment too. Suburbanites have been leeching off the rest of cities for too long.
Because economy is failing to give people even such basic neolithic things like house, smoked beef and fur coat. Nothing blocks you from using natural materials or have efficient thermal insulation, or solar-warmed water in your house.
I'm ok with townhouses, but I've spent too much of my life in low and middle income high rise apartments to view it as anything other than a temporary compromise. There are way to many drawbacks for it to be something I consider actualizing and fulfilling.
- How you get from home to work? - Work from home, no? In the multistory shared buildings you have a shared stairs which are not fully used by anyone (ok, you use them to walk, but not for storage for example). And detached houses are easier to renovate/make energy efficient/install solar panels/rain collectors. Good luck installing solar panels in the shared house. The only issue is zoning. There should be streets for commercial use nearby.
A lot of talk about many theories of living together as a solution, but no one ever mentions the sacrifice needed for the most important factor and that is the idea of "living in harmony" with your neighbors and community. You have to give up on the idea of "personal space" wherever you go and learn to be considerate towards others and tolerant (and patient) to those who are not. Sounds like utopia but it's practiced in some cities like here in Vienna. It's not completely perfect but most people follow this idea and allow for a reasonable amount of discomfort to live together harmoniously.
I don’t require much space or want it in my current situation, but to frame it as “why are you entitled to space, b/c X number of people live in matchbox size apartments?” is backward. We don’t need to take away someone’s ability to own (or aspire to) a home with a yard to elevate the situation of a person living in inhumane circumstances on the opposite side of the globe, or two blocks over for that matter. There’s a place in between to meet halfway. Dichotomizing the scenarios is just a way for government & society to reduce people’s standard of living expectations rather than actually get innovative to elevate those in bad circumstances.
