I know, because I grew up in what I consider the pinnacle of urbanism - the humble commie block.

Unfortunately even commie blocks nowadays are either becoming too expensive or get "densified" - new blocks are built in between them, often without much of a plan.

This appears to be due to induced demand - especially now that so many apartments are bought as investments and never rented out.

This bothers me because I'm in the market for an apartment and it's becoming a race against time due to rising prices.

Hah, yeah. We're in a terrible housing crisis here in Ontario (houses around Toronto are now worth over a million) and tent-cities are cropping up everywhere, and "commie blocks" are what anti-urbanists point to when they complain about the new housing going in to meet demand, and all I can think is that I'll take Khrushchyovkas over tent-cities any day of the week.

> This appears to be due to induced demand - especially now that so many apartments are bought as investments and never rented out.

This is always the question. If even half of them are getting rented out, then at least new units are adding to the market and helping to battle rent... but it seems like governments are so crippled in their ability to know for certain how many people live in how many units.

Yeah, the american streetcar suburb truly is a gem, doesn't really exist on that scale in Europe. Lush, spacious, and verdant, but also walkable, with city feel and city amenities. Always great architecture. Mix of home sizes makes them naturally mixed income. Commercial corridors often preserved their function. So awesome, if only more newer suburbs were like that.

> Mix of home sizes makes them naturally mixed income.

Sadly, I don't think this will last if current trends continue. The town next to mine has a ton of duplexes but it's all zoned single-family now, so you couldn't build those today if you had to.