What do we want out of life? Americans will often tell you that what they want is a home in the suburbs with two cars in the driveway. (The spouse and kids are not relevant subject matter here.) Eighty percent of Americans would prefer to live in a single family home, according to builderonline.com. It's possible that builderonline is a bit biased, though. Furthermore, I would suggest that many Americans are being convinced to buy something that they didn't really want in the first place. That, of course, is the whole point of marketing and the suburban, 'single family home/two cars (or more) in the driveway' lifestyle has been marketed to the American public ad infinitum. It's everywhere you turn in popular media, from sit-coms to commercials. And the social norm in the United States is definitely that everyone will want and pursue this lifestyle.
A few of us buck the trend, but we pay the price. From shitty mass transit and development laws that make traditional urban structure nearly impossible in most cities, living a normal life without adhering to the prescribed lifestyle can be a hassle. Furthermore, those who decide to live in multifamily units and reject the multi-car ethic are made to subsidize the lifestyles of the majority, not only because we pay the same taxes and get vastly differing levels of service, but also because buying a home provides a tax break that renters never get ( though condos and townhouses do provide the tax benefit) and even though drivers pay taxes and fees that others don't, the money collected comes nowhere near the monetary cost of meeting the demands of the driving public, much less the total cost to society, which includes things like pollution and resource depletion.
Considering these things, I am forced to wonder about the 80% statistic touted by builderonline and undoubtedly reiterated by the industry as a whole. How deep does a survey go in probing the desires of the American public? Do Americans actually want the lifestyle associated with that single family home, or are they simply responding to an entire century of marketing and social pressure as well as the financial benefits of being part of the home ownership system?
I think the answer is in where we spend our leisure time. On those occasions where we can pull ourselves out of normal, everyday life and we get to choose where we are and how we live for just a few minutes or a few days, where we choose to go is very telling. Specifically, I think the places where we shop and where we vacation are excellent indicators of the environments we actually like to be in. You may find this argument to be a stretch, since the examples I give are wholly part of the suburban, low density lifestyle. But that's my point. Within that suburban lifestyle, constant efforts are made to emulate a normal urban structure. One that works and is comfortable for the patrons. And the ones that do it well are able to charge a premium for the experience, which I think indicates that it's in high demand.
