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walkitoutPeople think about all kinds of things when they are looking for a place to live and raise their kids. Some of these things work better in single family housing: multi-family shared walls can lead to more serious and intractable noise problems than houses separated by a substantial setback on each side. My condo had some noise reduction, but kitchen and bath cabinets are famous for producing a drum like sound when the doors are allowed to close that even decent walls have trouble suppressing. Uninsulated water pipes in walls are particularly obnoxious -- you hear every flush from the floors above, not to mention if someone does laundry.
People often like the idea of a yard in principle, but in reality, it serves little purpose and requires substantial upkeep in neighborhoods with good schools: kids don't typically get much exercise in a yard (even if it includes play equipment), so unless someone really wants to garden, it's kinda useless other than providing a place for pets to do their business. If you don't maintain the yard to neighborhood standards (which can be very high), it impacts your relationship with your neighbors.
A friend reminds me of the sex offender registry and points out that in higher density neighborhoods, there are likely to be more sex offenders within a given radius -- because there are more people within a given radius. That's a bit of a stumper to me. I've known a variety of people over the last few years who spent a lot of time monitoring that registry (weirdly, they were all raised Catholic, but that's probably a coincidence -- there are a lot of people in New England who were raised Catholic), and they were all highly committed exurbanites (probably not a coincidence). While the observation is a fair one (more people = more bad people near me), it jars with everything I believe about safety. I do _not_ feel safe on a nearly empty street. I _do_ feel safe on a busy street (well, barring things like a developing riot, which I have been around a time or two, but that's a whole different kind of busy from the kind of busy I'm thinking of here).
What I do know is that any choice of residence means giving up some thing and getting others. I think this is why Avalon properties have so many commonalities (and Princeton has slightly different commonalities and so forth). They've identified a market that wants 2 and 3 bedroom units at a certain distance from job centers, with good public schools, that likes 3-6 story buildings with a clubhouse, pool, fitness room, etc., and plenty of parking and is willing to pay within a certain range for all of that. I have to believe these are families that might, in another decade, have bought into a master planned community with a park and a pool and a clubhouse. There are lots of small, infill developers whose complexes are too small for a pool, but who can put together a good fitness room -- and even smaller developers whose complexes have no common areas outside the lobby, halls, stairs, elevators and maybe a secured garage. Those small complexes aren't necessarily cheaper and if you've discovered one you really like you might have to wait a long while to get in.
I'm not arguing that families with children are shifting to multifamily because they've suddenly developed a preference for carrots over bananas. I'm arguing that they're at the store, and the bananas are gone, look like crap or are hideously expensive -- but the carrots are cheap, organic and plentiful. Carrots are pretty sweet, might help your night vision and can have a nice crunch to them. You can't make banana bread with them, but you can make carrot cake.
People often like the idea of a yard in principle, but in reality, it serves little purpose and requires substantial upkeep in neighborhoods with good schools: kids don't typically get much exercise in a yard (even if it includes play equipment), so unless someone really wants to garden, it's kinda useless other than providing a place for pets to do their business. If you don't maintain the yard to neighborhood standards (which can be very high), it impacts your relationship with your neighbors.
A friend reminds me of the sex offender registry and points out that in higher density neighborhoods, there are likely to be more sex offenders within a given radius -- because there are more people within a given radius. That's a bit of a stumper to me. I've known a variety of people over the last few years who spent a lot of time monitoring that registry (weirdly, they were all raised Catholic, but that's probably a coincidence -- there are a lot of people in New England who were raised Catholic), and they were all highly committed exurbanites (probably not a coincidence). While the observation is a fair one (more people = more bad people near me), it jars with everything I believe about safety. I do _not_ feel safe on a nearly empty street. I _do_ feel safe on a busy street (well, barring things like a developing riot, which I have been around a time or two, but that's a whole different kind of busy from the kind of busy I'm thinking of here).
What I do know is that any choice of residence means giving up some thing and getting others. I think this is why Avalon properties have so many commonalities (and Princeton has slightly different commonalities and so forth). They've identified a market that wants 2 and 3 bedroom units at a certain distance from job centers, with good public schools, that likes 3-6 story buildings with a clubhouse, pool, fitness room, etc., and plenty of parking and is willing to pay within a certain range for all of that. I have to believe these are families that might, in another decade, have bought into a master planned community with a park and a pool and a clubhouse. There are lots of small, infill developers whose complexes are too small for a pool, but who can put together a good fitness room -- and even smaller developers whose complexes have no common areas outside the lobby, halls, stairs, elevators and maybe a secured garage. Those small complexes aren't necessarily cheaper and if you've discovered one you really like you might have to wait a long while to get in.
I'm not arguing that families with children are shifting to multifamily because they've suddenly developed a preference for carrots over bananas. I'm arguing that they're at the store, and the bananas are gone, look like crap or are hideously expensive -- but the carrots are cheap, organic and plentiful. Carrots are pretty sweet, might help your night vision and can have a nice crunch to them. You can't make banana bread with them, but you can make carrot cake.