Urban sprawl is great. It is actually how cities grow and newer cities form further from more established cities. It’s one of the main sources of home ownership and home ownership is the primary way people acquire generational wealth.

What’s the alternative to urban sprawl? More densely packed apartments and condos for the most part. However, you never truly own apartments or condos. In places where strict limits have been placed on Urban Sprawl, like California, house and rent prices skyrocket due to too little supply of housing. This makes it doubly difficult to buy a home. A significant amount of your income goes to rent and you have to save much more for a down payment. Home ownership rates plummet and folks fall into the rent trap.

Many who can’t afford rent fall into homelessness. California and New York are 2 of the states that most limit urban sprawl. Together they are home to over 50% of the countries homeless population while having less than 20% of the countries total population.

Urban sprawl let’s people have there own land and home instead of cramming them into appartments. Mental health has become a growing concern and has coincided with the overall decline in home ownership and rise in apartment living. The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health conclusively showed those living in apartments had more mental health issues than those living in single family homes.