That might be true. However, suburban living comes at a cost that is highly subsidized. The cost of infrastructure per person in the suburbs is much higher than in a dense city. There is just so much more roads and pipes and cables per person. However, the cost gets carried by everyone evenly. If that cost had to be paid by the people in the suburbs (like me) than living there would all the sudden be quite a bit less attractive. This was covered in a great episode of Econtalk: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2014/05/charles_marohn.html