The issue isn't purely house vs apartment. It's a symptom of our neighborhood design.
Not Just Bikes has a really good video on why suburbia (usually single family housing) is often worse for children than denser environments.
Not Just Bikes has a really good video on why suburbia (usually single family housing) is often worse for children than denser environments.
The suburbs I grew up in were full of kids running around from house to house to park to shop to tree to trains to busses to school to tennis court to basketball court to skate park etc.
Urban areas where I grew up tended to be kind of concrete filled jungles. Similar facilities but nowhere near as exercise encouraging.
Now we live in a country where suburbs lack footpaths and there isn't much to do locally. We're considering moving back to another suburb in a nearby city that was urban and apartment filled but at least had a local mall, parks and rec centre that was extremely popular and well utilised.
I'd never ever move back to Phoenix, but likewise I don't see myself ever moving to, say, NYC. It goes too far in the other direction and is one of those concrete jungles you speak of.
I really think cities like London and Amsterdam strike a great middleground. Density, but not at the cost of green space.