First to clarify, I do not like cookie cutter garbage homes and chain restaurants, and desperately wish streetcars were available in my area to remove most of the need to drive. I also happily live in a diverse neighborhood.

From my perspective, I grew up in a rural community and am neurodivergent. I find urban areas profoundly uncomfortable - too noisy, too many people (leads my brain to go into hyper-vigilance mode), too closed in, too much light pollution (can’t see stars at night), and not enough green. But, I also enjoy the convenient accessibility of amenities and cultural activities like museums. This put me in a bit of a conundrum as urban living would have both significant psychological advantages and disadvantages - for example, it’s easier to meet people in densly populated areas.

Ultimately, this decision was made for me because I was priced out of ownership and even rentership in all nearby urban areas, despite having a more-than-decent salary. So, I ended up in a semi-dense suburban area of a small city on the border of a major metropolitan area.

Additionally, I suspect that those with past trauma, such as myself, also feel a strong preference towards having some land, even if it is well less than an acre, in order to have capacity to increase self-sufficiency (vegetable gardening, fabrication, etc). Especially, if thinking of the long-term as I refuse to accept the concept of being forced to work for a company to survive when/if I get to my twilight years.