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Re:Home ownership is the West’s biggest economic-policy mistake by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS on Tuesday April 20, 2021 @10:06AM (#26874864)
> It isn't giving up your garden: it's swapping it for a much larger shared garden with facilities you could never dream of affording on your own.

And for some people, that's great. For me, not living in a flat in the city (quite the opposite) isn't because I want a garden and facilities all my own. It's because you can't control how terrible your neighbors are, so if they're farther away from where you spend most of your time, even if they're terrible, they have little impact.

Take a loud neighbor who works nights. He'll play his music loud at hours you'd be sleeping, and pound on the wall at hours he'd be sleeping, because you're too loud.

Now add 5000 square feet of land between you.

"Good fences make good neighbors."

Re:Home ownership is the West’s biggest economic-policy mistake by bovine3dom on Tuesday April 20, 2021 @11:51AM (#26876284)
Most of those problems could be solved by good noise insulation which is fairly cheap to add during construction.

Terraced houses are common in the UK and are the worst of all worlds: poor noise insulation from neighbours, tiny dark gardens and very low density.

Re:Home ownership is the West’s biggest economic-policy mistake by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS on Tuesday April 20, 2021 @02:09PM (#26878455)
> solved by good noise insulation

You've obviously never met my neighbors. But noise is just one example; far more annoying when I was in an apartment was someone smoking below my balcony on a hot night when all I wanted was to open the windows.

And I suppose you'll tell me that filtration systems could take care of that, which is true, but staying locked in a closed apartment is, as has been recently shown, terrible for your health, physically and emotionally.

It's no use, I shall keep my yard and clear, dark skies where you can see the stars, and wildlife.

Re:Home ownership is the West’s biggest economic-policy mistake by bovine3dom on Tuesday April 20, 2021 @02:40PM (#26879137)
I don't have an answer for that - I can only say that I had the same problem in a semi-detached house in the UK with neighbours smoking weed in their garden and the smell coming up through our (quite far away) open windows.

Your stars sound good, but I don't be able to give up being able to walk everywhere.