Until I scampered off to college, I mostly lived in single-family houses or townhouses. In college, I lived in multi-unit buildings, but when home for the summer, it was to a house I returned.
After graduating college, I left my parents’ place/house for my own apartment in the city. That den of what I wish in retrospect was one of iniquity place was in a multi-unit building. I lived in apartments for seven years. Then The Missus and I bought and moved into Condo #1. We later moved to Condo #2. Our time living in Condos #1 and #2 lasted more than 15 years. So, for those of you who were neither math majors nor paying attention, that’s 22 years of living in one multi-unit building or another.
House planted
Then we decided to move from the Midwest to the Mountain West. Having loved living in multidwelling buildings, we decided that we’d look for an apartment in the new city. Because we’re renters now. Holla!
But we quickly discovered that apartments and condos in our new city are in relative short supply. Especially as compared to the city we moved from. On top of that, units meeting our not-too-unreasonable requirements are like a buffet to which I turn up my nose: rare.
So we had a tough time finding a place that we liked and worked for us. The list of places that sort of met our needs was pretty small and almost entirely comprised houses. So we bit the bullet and rented House #1.
House #1 was . . . not ideal. In fact, I now refer to it as “The Stupid House.” Because it was a stupid house. Fun fact: one of the many problems with The Stupid House was that the refrigerator in it was not in the kitchen. Worse, it was on what amounted to a shelf off to the side of a staircase. Opening the door was . . . challenging.
From The Stupid House, we moved into House #2, where we currently reside. We mostly love the new place. In fact, in layout and square footage, it’s a lot like Condo #2, which we adored. But it’s still a house. So our love for the place is not complete.
I’ve got that con-do spirit
I’ve found that we card-carrying members of the Multi-unit Building Superfan Club (Yes, yes, it’s a real club. I’m working on the monthly newsletter. Let me know if you want to be added to the mailing list. I’m also working on a name change for the club. Let me know if you have ideas.), are outliers. Most people, I’ve concluded, prefer houses.
I’m drawing that conclusion from my 100% unscientific research on the subject. First, if there were a lot of people who preferred multi-unit buildings over houses, the supply would be higher in our new city and in many places I’ve done some looking into. Second, just about everyone I’ve ever known either has always lived in a house or moved to one once they graduated from college and “grew up.” And third, over the years when I’ve heard first or second hand about someone wanting to move places, they’ve almost always been seeking a house.
Why do we prefer multi-unit buildings? Well, it’s probably worth mentioning that for the most part we had very good neighbors. Sure, there were a few rotten apples along the way. A woman with a newborn who was suffering from postpartum depression and for a few months would come out of her unit into the stairwell and scream like a banshee a few times a week was a notable standout. But mostly we had no issues.
Having good neighbors, Dear Reader, was fundamental to our love for living multi-unit buildings. We had a ready-built group of people we could: (1) hang out with; (2) borrow things from and lend things to; (3) share building expenses and responsibilities with, and so on. I think you can get elements of these when you live in a house with regard to neighbors. But it’s different. And, frankly, when you live in a house, I think it’s harder to form and organically deepen relationships with neighbors. When you see your multi-unit building neighbors multiple times a week, you tend to talk to them more, get to know them better, and spend more quality time with them.
This all said, having lived in multi-unit buildings for about 25 years, I think our having good neighbors wasn’t the exception to the rule. It was, instead, the rule. I’ll add that other people I know who live or have lived in multi-unit buildings have mostly had good neighbors, too.
We also discovered that because houses were more in demand that condos and were for “grown ups” — who, you know, are super responsible with money, of which they have a lot, of course — the premium for them was higher than for condos. Were Condo #2 a house, it easily would have fetched a price more than twice what we paid for it.
Alas, as I mentioned, an apartment was not meant to be — at least for the time being — in our new city. But I will say that, in my opinion, renting a house beats owning it. Here’s a short list of reasons why. But I miss the benefits of living in multi-unit buildings. Occasionally, I even miss the howling lady odd neighbor or two.
Dear Reader, if you’ve only lived in houses your whole life, or if got your heart set on a house, maybe pause a second. Give multi-unit buildings a thought. You just might find yourself a superfan like us. Maybe this type of superfan, too, if you’re in or moving to Chicago.
You can’t imagine how bizarre your logic feels to a rural type person. This morning I was washing my hands in the kitchen sink and looked up and there, staring me eye to eye through the window, was a deer just a few feet away in my back yard. She had walked up to our garden out of the 800 acres of woods behind our house. Our few neighbors are like extended family, we look out for each other, we share cakes and cookies and vegetables. Nobody is right or wrong in their preferences, we are just different. You like city living, I don’t mind visiting cities, but living in one is so unappealing to us. And of course, in rural flyover country there are no condos.
Yeah, I’m a city person to be sure. That said, we’re still in the minority among city people I think as we don’t know many people who prefer condos/apartments over houses. So it appears The Missus and I are contrarians on this. My real point in the post was just to get people to even THINK about a condo/apartment (where, of course, they’re an option). It’s not for everyone, and I know there are benefits to living in a house. But I get the sense (and in many cases I know for certain) that people dismiss condos/apartments out of hand because it’s not what their peers, colleagues, and/or parents or family members chose and therefore must not be a serious option. And that, to me, is a shame because of the many benefits of living in a condo/apartment.