Plenty of apartment buildings from 1970 are still around. And they are indeed cramped and noisy.

I've had to listen to my neighbours arguments and sex and whatever else in every apartment I've ever lived in.

I couldn't get out of that lifestyle fast enough.

That is far from universal though. The apartments I've lived in have been essentially soundproof, and it isn't just a function of age -- one built in 1910 and the other built in 2020. I never hear my neighbors, even when they are being loud.

How much space constitutes "cramped" in your view? My current apartment isn't that much smaller than the suburban house I used to live in, and that house had rooms that were almost never used.

1000 square feet or less is cramped, for me.

You will have a small kitchen, only one bathroom, one bedroom, and not enough room in your living space for much more than a couch and a table.

In a small space like that you can't have any hobbies that take up space. You certainly can't have a family. You can't have people stay over unless they are ok sleeping on a floor or couch. Chances are you can't even have two people use the kitchen at the same time. You can't host big gatherings like Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Anyways I'm glad your experience with apartments was ok. Mine sucked. I'm also willing to bet that you not hearing your neighbours was a function of having respectful and quiet neighbours more than any quality in the construction of the apartment.

You mean you never had people stomping on the roof above you? You never had people arguing in the hallways next door? You never had people blasting music so loud it shook the floor at 2am?

Lucky.

The apartments I've rented are all >1000 square feet. My current apartment in Seattle is 1350 square feet, and larger ones are available (albeit expensive). Plenty of space for furniture and stuff.

While good neighbors always helps, good sound isolation is better. The biggest source of noise in most of the places I've lived is always exterior windows. I have lived in places where you could play music surprisingly loudly without it leaking into the hallway, never mind the neighbors. We'd test it just to calibrate -- barking dogs, screaming kids, giant home theaters, etc and it was essentially inaudible.

Some apartments have terrible sound isolation, after all some decent hotels have worse sound isolation than any place I've lived, but it isn't a fact of nature.

I live in Tokyo. My apartment is a little bigger than 1000sqt. I have two bathrooms, two bedrooms, and a backyard patio area. We have enough space for hobbies and an office.

I can't hear my neighbors at all. They can't hear us. It's absolutely the construction.

I mean, my parents’ house was ~1150sqt. Four bedrooms, two split bathrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room and a dining room.

The reason your experience with apartments sucked is because you probably paid as little as you could for them too.

> The reason your experience with apartments sucked is because you probably paid as little as you could for them too

Yeah I did. And every time they still cost more than 50% of my paycheque every month. And in some cases they cost more than the mortgage I pay now.