A majority of Americans (57 percent) say they would prefer to live in a community where “houses are larger and farther apart, but schools, stores and restaurants are several miles away,” according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted March 27-April 2, 2023. About four-in-ten (42 percent) would prefer a community where houses are smaller. 

The share of the public that prefers more spread-out communities is roughly similar to two years ago, when six-in-ten Americans said this. Public preferences were more evenly divided on this question in fall 2019, a few months before the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

As in the past, there are differences in these preferences by party, age, education, race, ethnicity and community type.