Most in US prefer big houses, even if community is farther away

A residential development is shown under construction near the San Gabriel Mountains in Hesperia, California, on Feb. 23, 2026. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Americans have long expressed a modest preference for communities with bigger houses – even if that means schools, stores and restaurants are farther away – over communities with smaller houses that are closer to those services.

Year	Smaller and closer to each other	Larger and farther apart
2019	47%	53%
2021	39%	60%
2023	42%	57%
2026	44%	55%

In a Pew Research Center survey from January:

55% of U.S. adults 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.”
44% would prefer a community where “houses are smaller and closer to each other, but schools, stores and restaurants are within walking distance.”

The share of adults who prefer a more spread-out community is about what it was in 2023 (57%). But it’s down from July 2021, when 60% of Americans said during the COVID-19 pandemic they prefer more spread-out communities.

As in the past, these preferences also differ by race and ethnicity, age, education, party and community type.

About this research

This Pew Research Center analysis looks at which types of communities Americans would prefer to live in and how that varies by demographics.

Why did we do this?

Pew Research Center does research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics. We have studied Americans’ views of politics and major policy issues for decades.

Learn more about Pew Research Center and our politics research.

How did we do this?

We surveyed 8,512 U.S. adults from Jan. 20 to 26, 2026. Everyone who took this survey is part of the Center’s American Trends Panel. The survey reflects the views of all U.S. adults. Here are our survey questions, the detailed responses and the survey methodology.

Race and ethnicity

Population	Group	Smaller and closer to each other	Larger and farther apart
Total	Total	44%	55%
White	Race/Ethnicity	40%	59%
Black	Race/Ethnicity	52%	47%
Hispanic	Race/Ethnicity	48%	52%
Asian*	Race/Ethnicity	69%	31%
Ages 18-29	Age	54%	46%
30-49	Age	42%	57%
50-64	Age	38%	62%
65+	Age	47%	52%
Postgrad	Education	53%	47%
College grad	Education	47%	52%
Some college	Education	41%	58%
High school or less	Education	42%	58%
Rep/Lean Rep	Rep/Lean Rep	28%	71%
Conservative	Rep/Lean Rep	26%	74%
Moderate/Liberal	Rep/Lean Rep	33%	67%
Dem/Lean Dem	Dem/Lean Dem	60%	40%
Conservative/Moderate	Dem/Lean Dem	54%	46%
Liberal	Dem/Lean Dem	68%	31%
Urban	Community	61%	39%
Surburban	Community	45%	55%
Rural	Community	29%	70%

Nearly six-in-ten White adults (59%) say they would prefer to live in a more spread-out community with larger houses. By comparison, nearly seven-in-ten Asian adults (69%) would prefer a more walkable community with smaller houses.

Black and Hispanic adults are about evenly divided in their preferences.

Age

Across all age groups, only 18- to 29-year-olds are more likely to say they’d prefer a more walkable community to a more spread-out one. Americans ages 30 to 64 are the most likely to say they’d prefer a spread-out community with larger homes, though 52% of those 65 and older also say this.

Education

About six-in-ten Americans with some college experience or less education (58%) say they would prefer a more spread-out community, compared with 52% of those with a bachelor’s degree and 47% of those with a postgraduate degree.

Partisanship

Republicans have consistently been more likely than Democrats to say they’d prefer to live in a more spread-out community with larger houses. Today, 71% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say this would be their preference. By comparison, a 60% majority of Democrats and Democratic leaners would opt for a community with smaller houses that are closer to schools, stores and restaurants.

Ideology

About three-quarters of conservative Republicans (74%) say they would prefer a more spread-out community with larger houses, as do 67% of moderate and liberal Republicans. Meanwhile, majorities of conservative and moderate Democrats (54%) and liberal Democrats (68%) say they’d prefer a more walkable community with smaller houses.

Seven-in-ten Americans who describe the place where they currently live as rural say they would prefer to live in a community where houses are larger and farther apart, but also farther from schools, stores and restaurants. A smaller majority of suburban Americans (55%) would prefer this.

By contrast, 61% of Americans who currently live in an urban area say they would prefer a community with smaller houses that are within walking distance of schools, stores and restaurants.

Community type and partisanship

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to live in rural areas, and Democrats are more likely to live in urban areas. But there are partisan differences in preferences across community types.

Community type	Total	Rep/Lean Rep	Dem/Lean Dem
Urban	39%	55%	30%
Suburban	55%	69%	42%
Rural	70%	84%	51%

Among urban, suburban and rural residents alike, Republicans are consistently more likely than Democrats to want to live somewhere with houses that are larger and more spread out. For example:

84% of rural Republicans and 51% of rural Democrats prefer this.
55% of urban Republicans and 30% of urban Democrats say the same.

Note: Here are our survey questions, the detailed responses and the survey methodology. This is an update of a post originally published Aug. 26, 2021, written by former Research Assistant Vianney Gómez.

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