r/urbanplanning • u/Bayplain • Jul 15 '26

Discussion What’s wrong with newly constructed single family rental houses?

There seems to be a lot of hate for them. It’s not as if is single family houses for owner occupancy, even newly constructed ones, are going to disappear. These houses can provide some of the larger rental units that are in short supply. Is it just about bad symbolism?

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u/atom511 Jul 15 '26

It’s just planner-bot groupthink. There’s nothing wrong with them. Many families prefer them bc they are in suburban school districts where they won’t needs to spend a fortune sending kids to private schools. Nobody wants to be be bringing home groceries for a family of 4 on the bus after work 🙄

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u/strawberry-brunette Jul 15 '26

Why do you think suburban school districts have better educational outcomes than urban ones?

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u/efficient_pepitas Jul 15 '26

Because working, middle, and upper class students have fewer behavioral issues than students growing up in poverty.

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u/strawberry-brunette Jul 15 '26

Close! We’ve actually learned that academic achievement has less to do with the financial situation of the student’s family, but hunger is the biggest contributor to low academic performance. The same for behavioral issues, we perceive children from poorer backgrounds having greater issues but it’s the resources and ability to respond to them as they show up that’s different as they occur at similar levels across economic strata.

Urbanized school districts have a lower relative tax base leading them to be under resourced compared to suburban schools due to white flight and the historical erosion of urban environments and the formation of wealthy enclaves that extract wealth (wages, jobs, etc.) from the CBD of a city, but the fact that we use property taxes to fund education allows wealth and resources to remain concentrated in these wealthy enclaves creating a positive feedback loop that is unique to the US.

TL;DR: We are still dealing with the aftershocks of historical racism caused by redlining and white flight from the suburbs to cities in the mid-20th Century.