think there is more to it then individual choices, though. There are community choices, i.e. laws and policies, that contribute to it taking longer, harder, etc. to move in the direction you want.

Things like single family zoning that makes it impossible to increase housing stock in an area; meaning an affordable starter home which might be a 1 bedroom condo doesn't exist. In many places, the only trade off available is to move further and further away. Even things like parking minimums (which can raise the cost of construction by 20-50k/unit) in places where people might want to choose to go with fewer cars (i.e. 1 car for 2 adults) or transportation policies which make that an impossible choice, make it harder to make the variety of choices that are right for a particular individual. All of that is fair game for discussion.

But yes, if you insist on a very nice single family home with a big yard in a downtown, well then you probably are ridiculous, and for your sake, I hope you are the founder of Amazon.