Apartment vs House Living

[Morbid Minish]

def a nice apartment over a house

it has its inconveniences like very obnoxious neighbors but it's more safe and often has some cool stuff in the common area

How do you figure it's safer?


I'd personally go with a house. I don't really want to live in a big city, especially having lived out in the middle of nowhere for my whole life. I've also always lived in a house, and it seems much more preferable to be able to do what you want without having to worry about landlords/neighbors.

 

[ExLight]

How do you figure it's safer?

multiple gates+gatekeeper, plus cameras, plus much closer neighbors that can report strange activity with more accuracy
also based from personal experience with my family living in the countryside since they've had their houses broken into on a few occasions even though they had guard dogs and alarm systems installed

.

 

[Morbid Minish]

multiple gates+gatekeeper, plus cameras, plus much closer neighbors that can report strange activity with more accuracy
also based from personal experience with my family living in the countryside since they've had their houses broken into on a few occasions even though they had guard dogs and alarm systems installed

.

I don't ever think of nice apartments having multiple gates or any gatekeepers. I'm sure some do, but some don't. And suburban areas have close neighbors as well. The fact that apartments are multiple people living in one confined area actually seems more dangerous to me, considering you might not know many of them well. People living that close to you can know your routine a lot better. Cities tend to be more prone to crime than suburbs as well. Also, you have the issue of other people in the apartment potentially setting an accidental fire or something else, which would affect you as well. And if you don't have easy access to a fire escape it's a whole lot harder to escape an apartment building in a fire.

 

[ExLight]

I don't ever think of nice apartments having multiple gates or any gatekeepers. I'm sure some do, but some don't. And suburban areas have close neighbors as well. The fact that apartments are multiple people living in one confined area actually seems more dangerous to me, considering you might not know many of them well. People living that close to you can know your routine a lot better. Cities tend to be more prone to crime than suburbs as well. Also, you have the issue of other people in the apartment potentially setting an accidental fire or something else, which would affect you as well. And if you don't have easy access to a fire escape it's a whole lot harder to escape an apartment building in a fire.

Well speak for the US. We don't have suburbs in Brazil. In our big cities, houses are in mildly dense areas and our city's surroundings are slums. In any case, that doesn't change the fact that from my personal experience houses are much prone to being broken into even in less urban areas.

And pretty much every apartment building here has at least two gates and multiple cameras in public halls and elevators. Gatekeepers are very common but not a must. Fancier ones have ID card/fingerprint recognition systems database on top of that, so like, yea.

I think it's fairly easy to say urban areas are more violent and have more crimes, but those don't necessarily mean they're crimes regarding your home's safety, as a good chunk of these numbers is probably pickpocketing/robbery.

Fire is a fair point, people knowing my routine better because they live next door is paranoia. Apartments are just a bunch of stacked houses, the interactions between neighbors are almost as limited as if it were neighboring houses. Unless you're actively stalking them, which could happen with houses as well, you'll barely know anything about them, lol. I can tell you I know nothing about any of my neighbors except that my upper one seems to have frigging zoomies at 10 PM and goes running around his place for some reason.

 

[Morbid Minish]

Well speak for the US. We don't have suburbs in Brazil. In our big cities, houses are in mildly dense areas and our city's surroundings are slums. In any case, that doesn't change the fact that from my personal experience houses are much prone to being broken into even in less urban areas.

And pretty much every apartment building here has at least two gates and multiple cameras in public halls and elevators. Gatekeepers are very common but not a must. Fancier ones have ID card/fingerprint recognition systems database on top of that, so like, yea.

I think it's fairly easy to say urban areas are more violent and have more crimes, but those don't necessarily mean they're crimes regarding your home's safety, as a good chunk of these numbers is probably pickpocketing/robbery.

Fire is a fair point, people knowing my routine better because they live next door is paranoia. Apartments are just a bunch of stacked houses, the interactions between neighbors are almost as limited as if it were neighboring houses. Unless you're actively stalking them, which could happen with houses as well, you'll barely know anything about them, lol. I can tell you I know nothing about any of my neighbors except that my upper one seems to have frigging zoomies at 10 PM and goes running around his place for some reason.

I was just speaking about the initial question which mentioned city vs suburbs. Though, where I live people seem more likely to have their place broken into more in town than out in the countryside. Though that's just from my perception, I don't know if it's actually that way.

A lot of suburban areas here will be gated as well if they're really nice ones. And I know a lot of the homes will have home security systems. So that's fairly comparable.


I think that where you live plays a factor in the safety more than your specific home. Though I was more talking to that overall safety rather than just home specific safety.

People knowing your routine better isn't paranoia if we're talking about safety. If a neighbor in an apartment wants to stalk/harm you it's way easier to know when you're doing what if you live that close together. Sure people can also stalk people in houses, but they put themselves at more risk having to stake it out and be noticed vs just normal neighbors living their normal lives and taking in your routine easily. Like you just mentioned how your upper neighbor seems to have the zoomies at 10pm. That's a specific time when you know they do something certain. I couldn't tell you anything specific my neighbors do unless it's leaving their house for work.

 

[ExLight]

If a neighbor in an apartment wants to stalk/harm you it's way easier to know when you're doing what if you live that close together.

I think you're overestimating the reduced privacy that comes with apartments. I can guarantee you that it does not make stalking that much easier.

 

[ExLight]

You'll be able to hear unusual sounds. So you'll hear if someone is shouting, or if something heavy fell, or if someone is forcing a door, or if the neighbor is playing the drums very loudly, or if someone is vacuuming, etc.

And you'll sometimes meet them in common areas like elevators, or lounges.

And that's about it really. People in apartments usually follow their routine discreetly, you can't really tell what they're doing on the other side of the wall unless it's blatantly noisy. It's not too different from houses.

 

[CynicalSquid]

Ideally I’d like to get a house just to have more space but right now everything is so expensive that a decent sized apartment in a nice area is good enough for me.

 

[Morbid Minish]

I think you're overestimating the reduced privacy that comes with apartments. I can guarantee you that it does not make stalking that much easier.

You'll be able to hear unusual sounds. So you'll hear if someone is shouting, or if something heavy fell, or if someone is forcing a door, or if the neighbor is playing the drums very loudly, or if someone is vacuuming, etc.

And you'll sometimes meet them in common areas like elevators, or lounges.

And that's about it really. People in apartments usually follow their routine discreetly, you can't really tell what they're doing on the other side of the wall unless it's blatantly noisy. It's not too different from houses.

That's completely different from houses. One neighbor I never see unless I happen to be outside when they check the mail. And even then, it's not like any interaction takes place because we're still a good distance away. Any routine that has noise is noticeable in apartments, but not in houses. You could hear when someone leaves/enters their apartment if they shut the door loud enough, which would be pretty key for stalking. And you don't even have to leave your own apartment for that.

 

[ExLight]

I'm telling ya, it's not that different.
Saying hi and holding the door for them is not much more of an interaction that waving at each other when fetching mail.

And again, repeating myself. People are discreet with their routine, pretty much all of it is inaudible. Noises that are loud enough are the exception. Others getting in and out of their homes is barely audible: in my apartment's layout I'd only be able the hear the one directly opposed to me but even so I don't. And considering you just said you can tell when your neighbors leave for work, I feel like that's not really a good point to begin with since that's much major than me hearing my neighbor running around lol

Why would it even matter to my neighbor/stalker that I left my apartment? If they try to get into my place a camera will record them. These recordings are usually available to the apartment's manager and/or watched live by the gatekeeper. Any issues would happen outside home. And if it's out of my home then it has no space in this conversation in the first place.

From a burglary perspective, apartment is insanely safer to me no matter how you cut it, and I'm not sure what else to tell you. I do agree there's lack of privacy to some degree but it's nothing as major as you're imagining.

 

[GrooseIsLoose]

Aah I wish to live in a apartment. With neighbors like a tight knit family. We are social beings after all. The tenants left too and it's kinda getting lonely and boring. Our tenants were super fun. They cooked good food and were resourceful.

 

[XandertheWise]

apartment is better. No worries about having to waste money on trying to get the damn house fixe repairing holes in the wall whih lets in cold air during winter time etc.

 

[TheGreatCthulhu]

apartment is better. No worries about having to waste money on trying to get the damn house fixe repairing holes in the wall whih lets in cold air during winter time etc.

But at least you can fix the problem yourself, and not have to rely on the incompetent and lazy maintenance guy to fix the problem for you, if indeed they are a rare breed and actually know how to fix things that don't work.

 

[XandertheWise]

it freaking costs thousands of dollars to fix a damn house. It aint cheap.

 

[Mikey the Moblin]

In my experience, the "privacy" of apartments only comes down to everyone just not wanting to deal with other tenants

It's a plausible deniability sort of unspoken mutual agreement to pretend like nothing is happening